Tokyo Designer's Week

Every year, Tokyo Designer's Week turns the city into a dream world for creative types. TDW encompasses all aspects of design, turning art galleries, interior shops, clothing boutiques and public squares into platforms for exhibiting the world's best in design. 100% Design Tokyo, the main event held at Jingu-gaien Park, attracts ogglers by the thousands with its global sampling of innovative products and ideas for better living.

Tokai University, for instance, hopes to save us from unnecessary waste with the Ajimi ("taste-testing"), a cute little gadget that measures acidity levels to determine if food is still good after its sell-by date. The university's Toru Suzuki also suggests a camera in the shape of a ring and a watch that allows you to take pictures by making a "screen" with your index finger and thumb.

There was huge participation worldwide from "Blickfang" of Germany, as well as designers from Austria, Switzerland, Iceland, and nearby Korea. Iceland-based illustrator Katrin Olina provided a rendition of her nightmarishly cute creatures in a front-end space as the event's chosen representative artist this year.

Japan's Teraoka Seiko company, which makes digital scales for supermarkets, presented one of the most fascinating booths with their "40ft dream shop." Participants were given pieces of flat plastic embedded with RFID tracking chips then "shopped" with the device by touching it to futuristic panel screens, purchasing intangibles such as emotional medication and astrologic installations. No word on the return policy.

—Misha Janette