In large part, my second visit to Tokyo was spontaneous. Contrary to my other trips, I didn’t do much planning, and instead opted to rely on my gut to tell me what to see and do each day that I was in town. However, there was one thing in particular that I wanted to cover -- something I wasn’t able to see the last time I visited in 2014 because, well, it wasn’t even open back then.
On June 21 (also just happens to be my birthday!) of 2018, the world-leading art collective teamLab opened their new digital art museum, EPSON teamLab Borderless, to the public. I’m not the biggest fan of museums myself, but this just felt like something I had to see before I left Tokyo.
Ticket prices:
Adults – 3,200 yen
Children (4 to 14 years old) – 1,000 yen
Operating Hours: teamLab Borderless is open year-round, with the exception of Japanese holidays.
10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Monday to Thursday, Sunday & holidays)
10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (Friday to Saturday & holiday eve)
In teamLab Borderless, every room and hallway changes periodically. The room you once walked through may not be the same when you return.
Exhibits
You can easily spend hours here getting lost in the maze of artwork. Furthermore, the rooms are dynamic -- the art in the room changes almost as soon as you leave to walk into the next room. That being said, I want to highlight the few exhibits that really stood out to me:
Memory of Topography
“The scenery instills in the viewer a feeling of eternal permanence, however with the flow of real time the scenery is continuously changing.”
The Memory of Topography is a room reminiscent of a rural landscape with varying elevations, and tells the story of seasons changing and how life moves along with it. You’ll see how the landscape changes from spring to summer to fall, along with insects and flowers that change along with that landscape. What I like about this space is that as you walk through the mountainside, the flow of air blows flower petals and rice plants in various directions.
Crystal World
“The Crystal World is in perpetual change due to visitor interaction; the space is reborn moment by moment.”
Eventually you’ll wander into the Crystal World, a dazzling infinity room of LEDs used to create some form of sculptural body.
Sculptural bodies drawn and created by visitors at other teamLab Borderless locations can make their way into this world, transformed into 3D creations through points of light.
Forest of Resonating Lamps
“When a person stands still close to a lamp, it shines brightly and emits a color that resonates out.”
By far the most popular exhibit in the art museum, the Forest of Resonating Lamps is my personal favorite. The lamps in this room change color and intensity when they sense people near them, and that light is transmitted to nearby lamps until eventually all the lamps in the room shine brightly once. Despite how random the arrangement of lamps may appear, each lamp has one line (or stroke) that connects that lamp to the next closest lamp in a three-dimensional space. This enables the lamps corresponding to the person to transmit light to the nearest neighboring lamp, one-by-one, until eventually all the lights in that line have shone once.
Forest of Resonating Lamps -- One Stroke
As this is one of the most popular rooms in the entire museum, I’d recommend having your camera settings set and your poses ready. Entrance into this room is limited to roughly 1-2 minutes per group of ~20 people, with the staff politely guiding each group in and out according to their allotted time.
Weightless Forest of Resonating Life
“Be immersed by various objects of light that move as though they’re defying gravity”
At some point you’re going to make your way upstairs to the Athletic Forest, which consists of uneven floors, more exhibits and very much feels like a designer’s playground. One of the first things you’ll see is the Weightless Forest of Resonating Life, a space where the balloons on the ground and in mid-air seemingly defy the laws of gravity and physics. The balloons in this space change color and intensity when objects are pushed over by people, and much like the other rooms this color will be transmitted through nearby balloons.
Getting There
From Shinjuku or Shibuya, you can take the Saikyō line to Tokyo Teleport station. Be sure to stay on the train when you arrive in Ōsaki as this line turns into the Rinkai Line, and after 4 stops on this line you’ll arrive at Tokyo Teleport. From this station, TeamLab Borderless is about a 5-minute walk (head towards the ferris wheel). It’s about a 30-minute journey from Shinjuku, so make sure to plan accordingly!
Closing Thoughts
I was thoroughly impressed by teamLab Borderless. I’ve been to a handful of art museums in the past -- none of which left a lasting impression like this one did. I spent a little over 2 hours in this museum, which I think is the most time I’ve spent in any museum, and still didn’t get a chance to see everything (there was a Floating Nest exhibit that I missed because entrance is limited to a handful of guests and the queue was around 1 hour long).
You may have noticed that despite covering several of the exhibits above, I didn’t mention much about navigating inside the museum itself. That’s because getting lost is the best part! The first words you see in the introductory video before you enter the museum are “wander, explore, and discover” -- teamLab encourages you to take your time in this exhibit and get lost wandering the many different rooms this space has to offer.
You can view more highlights from this playground in the Japan album in my gallery!