Japan's amazing lunchboxes

Making a packed lunch for your children to take to school is a chore performed by parents around the world. 
But in Japan, it is not just the taste and healthiness of the meal that is important - but how it looks. 
The country's ancient emphasis on food presentation has been transformed into a trend for character bento - packed lunches made to look like pandas, teddy bears or even real people. 
The BBC's Tokyo correspondent Roland Buerk has been finding out more.



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Japanese firm reveals the first 'smelliphone' add-on that lets you send scents to friends

The first prototype of what's been dubbed the 'smelliphone' has been shown off by Japanese firm ChatPerf.  
In a video on DigInfoTV, ChatPerf demonstrates the Scentee device, which can be attached to smartphones and used to send smells to friends. 
The company claim it can also be used to create atmospheric scents while playing games or watching films, for example.

Dirt cuisine: are you adventurous enough to taste?

Adventurous diners can enjoy a menu made with soil, if they so wish, at a Tokyo restaurant normally specialising in seafood. 

For the last three weeks, chef Toshio Tanabe has been serving 'dirt cuisine' to customers, saying he's trying to reflect nature's life in his food. The menu includes soil soup and potato balls with soil sauce and costs around £70