She is absolutely gaga over Hello Kitty, the beribboned feline that's popping up all over the region. Her vocabulary is heavily populated by the word kawaii. It means "cute" literally, but so much more than that figuratively. Something kawaii is infinitely desirable, something to make a young girl's life complete.

The Kawaii Culture is what has made girls like Norie--and Japan has 3 million of them between the ages of 18 and 21--pop-culture icons. Their every whim and impulse-purchase is religiously observed and analyzed by the titans of advertising, marketing, fashion, publishing and the cute-little-gadgets industry. What does Norie want? That's what everybody wants to know.