Ghosts, giant babies, and the other highlights of Tokyo Designers Week

Tokyo Designers Week, the Japanese capital's annual celebration of art, design, and all that's in between, returned to Aoyama in 2013 bigger than ever. Few other events in the world see the likes of Samsung, Adobe, and Nike rubbing shoulders with unsettling artworks such as Ryuhow's "Mother" (pictured above), which walks the line between creepy and haunting.

As ever, though, it's the kind of event best explained with pictures rather than words — so scroll down to see the best of what we saw.

Mamoris is a seat that can be worn as a helmet in emergency situations — a constant worry in earthquake-prone Japan. The name comes from the Japanese words mamoru, meaning "protect," and isu, meaning "chair."
Japanese carrier NTT Docomo brought along a large booth to demonstrate its Live UX concept. Attendees could use their arms to spin virtual phones, create towers of projected building blocks, or create interactive art.
Nihon University's "Paradise." Hammering on levers outside the dome causes the colored balls to fly around inside.
An exhibitor takes a photo of the event atop the University of Tsukuba's beer crate architecture.
"Puddle," by Japan Women's University Graduate School.
Samsung worked with Japanese artists such as Yoriko Mizushiri to cast projection-mapped imagery onto white dummy phones.
Toshiba collaborated with Yasumichi Morita's renowned Glamorous studio to create this LED spotlight demonstration. The shifting colors create various moods.
Adobe attracted designers to its Creative Cloud booth with motion-tracked movements on a giant screen.
This exhibit from Josai International University had visitors looking through a telescope at pixelated renderings of famous Japanese landmarks.
Kogakuin University's "Yureru Rinkaku." The project is a gently swaying cube on the outside.
"Orishiki," a carrying device designed by Naoki Kawamoto and Rodrigo Solorzano. The inspiration comes from origami and the furoshiki, a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth.
Masuo Fujimura's "Turf rug lounger." Fujimura says the space-saving design offers "more living room, comfort, and serenity."
The Oculus Rift made an unorthodox appearance in the shape of Noriyuki Kitsugi and Kenji Arakawa's "Subjective World," a demonstration of how the VR headset could be used as a new way to experience arty, minimal infographics.
Dancers on the Nike stage and their digital doppelgängers.
If Yutaka Yanagisawa's unconventional table took any inspiration from the iconic PlayStation symbols, he isn't telling. The name of the design, however, is "Circle Triangle Square Cross."
Hikaru Yamaguchi says his MacBook case is machined from the same aluminum sheet metal used in Japan's bullet trains.
Cogoo's "Saddle Blossoms" proposes a new use for the thousands of abandoned bicycles that litter Tokyo's streets.
Many of Tokyo Designers Week's installations are housed in shipping containers. This is studio_01's "Slack Circuit," which uses transparent string to allow for reconfigurable walls and ceilings.
Tokai University's "Cosmic Baby" sleeps as the sun sets.
The ghostly projections of "Transient Contiguity" by Masaki Nishikubo, Ryugo Ichikawa, and Junpei Mukai.
The Designboom Mart is a market for designers to sell their goods in person. This is Duncan Shotton, a Tokyo-based designer from the UK who used the show to launch his new "Plate-plate."
Waseda University's "Cloud," constructed from fallen branches and described as "the new space for the new generation."
Toto has already elevated the toilet almost to an artform with its washlets, and they got their own gallery at this year's Tokyo Designers Week. The final room showed a single unit sitting on a giant roll of toilet paper surrounded by projected imagery.