Japan C, an eleven week festival celebrating contemporary Japanese culture opened it's doors last night at the historic Felissimo House in New York for the launch of Design Japan Week. Over 70 Japanese firms are showcasing products spanning home and fashion accessories to gadgets, food, beauty and pop-culture for wholesale, market feedback and simply to inspire.

With the theme Cool, Cute, Clever and Creative, there was certainly no shortage of kawaii (cute) products presented in a way that you could be forgiven for thinking you were in an upscale department store. Some of the items are indeed for sale, and there will be an auction in the final week with proceeds going to Bette Midler's New York Restoration Project to plant cherry trees along the Hudson River.

If you can look past the exhibition logotype which oddly employs a red copyright © symbol with no explanation (or relevance), it's a well curated collection of interesting Japanese products, diverse enough to satisfy a broad cross section of design fans.

Japan C August 16th - November 1st, 2008 Felissimo Design House 10 West 56th Street New York City

Click through for more photos from the opening