Kawaisa or Kawaii - When being cute becomes a meta-cultural and political phenomenon. It is such a huge concept in Japanese popular culture that I refer you to the following links for further academic study of this odd but fascinating cultural mania:
Kawaii wiki entry
All Things Kawaii
Onatoko - Japanese street fashion
Phoophie.com - Kawaii stationary and more - online store
Kawaii is a term used, as I have seen in practice on Flickr, in appraising exclamation for something that is unbearably cute.
Americans tend to have this visceral response to baby animals. If you would like to get in touch with that feeling surf over to Cute Overload and you find yourself bent over in paroxysms of cute-agony, wailing “No, dammit, that is too cute”.
