Tokyo - "Welcome - would you like a hot drink today?," a soft female voice purrs in the cold winter air.

Confused, the first-time visitor to Japan makes his way over to the vending machine where he chooses from a dozen boiling hot cups of coffee with flavours ranging from sticky sweet and milky to night black. This machine talks?

"Thank you. Have a nice day," the artificial voice says, catching perfectly the correct intonation of politeness to make the Japanese customer feel appreciated.

Welcome to Japan, where people might be forced to live in the most cramped quarters of any industrialized nation, but, with the aid of a unique plethora of high-tech gadgets, lead more pampered lives than anybody else on the planet.

Paris - Everyone bar a saint can recall being curt with a supermarket checkout girl at some point, but after reading a new best-selling book in France, many a customer might think twice about being unfriendly to the woman behind the counter.

In her book "Les tribulations d'une caissiere" (The Trials of a Checkout Girl) Anna Sam, 28, dissects typical supermarket users, including many familiar types. Her critical eye registers the notorious moaners and the bargain hunters along with the shop-until- you-drop types and of course, the pleasant customers who do mind their manners. The book has already sold 100,000 copies in France and is set to be published in English later this year.

Cologne - Moving on from traditional armchairs and sofas, designers are now using leather to cover furniture previously not associated with the material.

At the Cologne International Furnishing Show, held each year in late January, cutting-edge creations included a leather-fronted cabinet and leather-bordered beds.

"And a lot more is coming, too," predicted Ursula Geismann, a member of the German Furniture Industry Association.

Munich - Fixed appointments have become an exception in many people's lives.

While previously, it sufficed to say "Friday at 8" when setting a date, nowadays people discuss an appointment, but then agree to ring each other shortly beforehand only to postpone or cancel it. For some people, a short text message is all it takes.

It appears nobody wants to be pinned down by fixed appointments, but constant postponements amount to bad conduct and prevent real friendships from developing, behavioral experts say.

Sydney - The fun of watching a James Bond film lies partially in spotting what the advertising industry calls product placement.

The brands on show be they of cars, watches, hotels or even locations have paid for the privilege of their association with the hunky celluloid spy and his world of glamour and sophistication.

Yet, it seems a bit of a cheat - cinemagoers, after all, have paid for their seats and have to sit through commercials even before the film begins - but Hollywood argues that the parade of products helps pay for the whiz-bang special effects.

Cologne - Transformability was one of the biggest trends to emerge at this year's international furniture trade show in Cologne.

There were sofas, for example, that didn't necessarily have to go in the sitting room and desks that did not have the serious look of office furniture.

Many of the 1,000 exhibitors from 50 countries at the January show, featured furniture showing how different living spaces in the home are slowly growing together. At the same time, however, the differences between the private and the "public" parts of a home seem to be getting stronger, and this development has had an effect on furniture design.