Another great experience we had in Japan was visiting teamLab Planets. To be honest, though, I wasn't initially convinced that I should include it in our itinerary. I actually wanted to visit teamlab Borderless because I had seen pictures that people took of their visits there and I though it looked really beautiful. Unfortunately, it was closed (the plan is to relocate it somewhere else in Tokyo). My initial concern with teamLab Planets was that we would get our feet wet. I thought it would be such a hassle to have to take off your shoes and socks, keep them in a locker, get wet, dry yourself, then retrieve your shoes and socks before you leave. Nevertheless, this trip wasn't just for me. I showed the website and photos of teamLab Planets to my family and asked them if they would like to visit this place and they said they did. Thankfully, we did, because our trip here was awesome and we got to take some really amazing pictures here.
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| teamLab Planets |
Before entering, we were given a briefing about how our visit would go. We left our shoes and socks in individual lockers before going into the exhibit. We walked up a gentle incline that had water flowing; I think this is meant to clean the feet of the guests. After passing the Soft Black Hole where we had to walk over huge cushions, we made it to the first main attraction: Infinite Crystal Universe. Here, we walked through a maze of crystal-like lights that kept changing colors. It was beautiful and made for great photo ops but I gotta say, it was a bit disorienting because we weren't sure exactly where to walk. I also had to ask one of the staff where the exit was to the next room haha.
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| Infinite Crystal Universe |
We then entered Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People. Colorful Koi images swam through the water and whenever people would touch them, they would turn into flowers. While this was initially the section of teamlab Planets that I was most uncertain about because it required us to walk through shin-deep water, it ended up being my favorite part of our trip here.
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| Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People |
Next was Expanding Three-Dimensional Existence in Transforming Space. There were large spheres of light scattered all over the room that kept changing colors.
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| Expanding Three-Dimensional Existence in Transforming Space |
The next room - Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers - was probably my least favorite, mainly because it made me a bit dizzy. Before going in, you will see a sign that recommends lying on the floor to enjoy the images of flowers being projected on what seemed to be domed walls of the room. It really gave us the illusion that the floor we were on was slowly turning and moving upwards.
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| Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers |
We then made our way to the Garden area. The first attraction here is the Moss Garden of Resonating Microcosms. It had these beautiful align egg-looking installations scattered across the garden. (They actually light up at night but we didn't get to see that since we were there during the afternoon.)
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| Moss Garden of Resonating Microcosms |
Finally, we made our way to the Floating Flower Garden. When I saw pics of this, I thought the flowers were images projected on a screen. As it turns out, they seemed to be real flowers hanging from the ceiling and moving up and down as guests walk around. The walls are mirrored, giving the illusion of being in an endless floating flower garden. This is the only section were visits are timed.
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| Floating Flower Garden |
We ended up spending about 2 hours here. Since we were already close to Odaiba (we already took the Yurikamome line to get to the Shin-Toyosu station which is right next to teamLab Planets and the Yurikamome line goes to Odaiba), I told my family we should go see the Unicorn Gundam Statue so I could take a photo.
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| Unicorn Gundam Statue |
Odaiba is an artificial island and our trip here turned out to be a bit of a pleasant revelation for us. I was originally thinking I would just pass by here to take a photo with the Gundam statue but we ended spending about an hour here enjoying the many different points of interest, including the Flame of Freedom sculpture.
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| Flame of Freedom Sculpture |
We also got to see the Odaiba Statue of Liberty, which was built to celebrate the friendship between Japan and France.
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| Odaiba Statue of Liberty |
The cloud formations were magnificent that afternoon and they provided a fantastic backdrop to the Rainbow Bridge that connects Odaiba to the rest of Tokyo.
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| Rainbow Bridge |
I also had to take a photo of the Fuji Television Building, with the very distinct and unique Hachitama Spherical Observation Room.
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| Fuji Television Building |
It's quite amazing to think that we got to see and do a lot at teamLab Planets and in Odaiba all in just a few hours. We also got to have some coffee and snacks at the Bakery & Pastry Shop at the Grand Nikko Tokyo Odaiba.
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| Coffee break at the Bakery & Pastry Ship at the Grand Nikko Tokyo Odaiba |
Next: Tokyo DisneySea!
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