A revolutionary way to cook perfectly done hamburger!
If you cook it until the middle is done, it's burnt! If you cook it until the outside looks good, you cut it open and it's raw!
First, mix together the ingredients (raw meat, an egg, some onions, salt?) and form a regular patty. Put the burger into a pan and start cooking. After you turn it, put a piece of ice into the pan and melt it a bit so it gets smaller. Then, put it on top of the burger and smush it in. (?!?!) Cover and cook for 8 minutes. It looks juicy and done and yummy!
It works because the ice melts and gets hot, which spreads into the rest of the meat, cooking it.

How to remove 6 cans of beer from a box, without tearing the top off!
Japanese beer boxes are different from American. They're open on both ends, but have little tabs at the corners keeping the drinks inside, and the top is preforated so you can just rip it off and take the drinks out. The "trick" was that you push the drinks out, but you have to turn them or else it won't work! This was supposed to be a way to increase the excitement at hanami, but seriously..what the crap? You'd already have to have consumed a different box of beers for this to be amusing

How to remove the bubbles in poured beer VERY quickly!
Put in a few drops of tabasco!! It's the cap...cap... SPICY STUFF!! that does it. The problem is, it makes the beer a bit spicy..

How to drain tofu in 30 seconds!
S-she just cut off the edges of fried tofu... =o= That's not FAIR!!

How to pickle vegetables in just one minute!
After cutting the vegetables into the pieces you want, surround it with the pickling (?) ... stuff (salted rice bran paste, according to my dictionary) and microwave for a minute. Cucumber and carrots took a minute, and daikon took a minute and a half.

A trick to see in the dark quickly after entering a dark room!
(I have a comment... these 'tricks' are so... weird)
The trick is to cover one of your eyes for ten seconds before entering the room. It makes sense -- your eye gets used to the dark in that time.

How to make pretty decorations that look like stained-glass!
First, form a piece of wire into a circle, and glue it to a clear file. Then glue on more wire, to form the shape you want. After the glue dries, mix powdered food coloring with carpenter's glue and fill the spaces with the color you want. The glue dries clear, so all that you can see is color! It's really quite cute! Oh yeah, peel it off the clear folder when it's dry.
Since it's just wire and colored glue, you can bend it. They made one in the shape of a plus sign, and folded up the sides to make cute little boxes.

How to make melon bread in only three minutes!
Ingredients: four slices of bread (shokupan), 1 tablespoon of milk
Cut off the crust from the bread, then cut the bread into 1.5cm cubes. Put it into a bowl, then pour the milk over and mix with your hands. Remove 1/3 and put onto a piece of plastic wrap, and squish it into a ball. Leave in the plastic.
For the top, use: 20 grams of unsalted butter (looks like a tablespoon or so), 1 egg, and a tablespoon of milk, 150 grams (looks like a cup and a half or so) of hot cake mix
Mix egg and milk into softened butter, then add the hot cake mix.
Wrap the top part in plastic wrap and roll out till it's about 7-8 millimeters thick and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Afterwards, cut a 10cm square from it and use it to cover the milk-bread. Roll the top in sugar, and cut the cute little lines into it, then bake for 13-15 minutes in a 180C degree oven.
If you put other things (chocolate chips, cocoa powder, etc) in the hot cake mixture, you can make other types of melon bread.

Omoshiro Recycle -- the cushions and such that come with fresh fruit
As far as I know we don't have these things in America, but oh well..
(1) Use the cushions as bath sponges, particularly for kids
(2) Cut out the 'bowl' part of trays, and tape together, putting a rubber ball inside. It rolls funny!
(3) Cut open the cushion until it's just one layer, then pull it so it spreads apart a bit. Place under a rug so it won't slip! Can withstand the Matsuken Samba!
(4) Use a big fruit cushion, dip it in soapy water, then shake it and it makes lots of bubbles! If you want to use a small cushion, tape chopsticks to both edges so you can expand it while shaking.

The last part was Japanese-style parfaits, but I didn't include it because it includes the use of a product they want you to buy.

Check out Itou-ke's homepage for information (in Japanese of course) and pictures of the above! The top three dark blue buttons are the ones that have details from the show, as well as past episodes.