Design Festa Gallery (www.designfesta.com) is an offshoot of Design Festa, Japan's largest freestyle exhibition, held twice yearly at Tokyo Big Site. The building easily stands out from the rest of its buildings. Its wild scaffolding, red traffic cones, and graffiti drawings jolts one out of her/his conventional perception of what a building ought to look like and leaves her/him either amused or unappreciative. As for me, I was like, "Wow!" The exhibitions in the Design Festa Gallery are held temporarily, depending on the financial resources of the artists, as they would have to pay to use the exhibition rooms. So, what one would actually get to see in Design Festa Gallery is really the luck of the draw. Nonetheless, it's still cool to be adventurous and visit with an open mind, for one is bound to come across something that s/he fancies.

On the day we visited, there were manga (comic drawings), self-penned pictorial books, posters, installations, and artworks on display. What impressed me was that each artist seemed to have developed her/his distinctive and unique style. This sheer richness and vibrancy of diverse styles makes it an intriguing and thought-provoking experience, as one is confronted with so many different modes of expression. One also can't help but feel touched by these artists' determination to pursue their creative impulses instead of just letting life drag them along. I left the Design Festa Gallery, humbled and impressed by these young artists' efforts. And also briefly pondered about how Japan society must be nurturing for such creative outpourings to blossom.