Tokyo is home to two big teamLab digital art museums; Borderless and Planets. Both are immersive art exhibits that allow you to explore digital art like no other, but they have their differences. teamLab Planets reopened earlier this year after a lengthy refurbishment making way for a space 1.5 times its original size, which made it the perfect time to visit.
The main difference between Planets and Borderless is that Planets has a divided exhibition, meaning you enter and exit out of different areas, with a possibility that you may have to queue more than just for the initial entry. Borderless, however, as the name suggests, is a free flowing space that runs throughout the entire exhibit meaning you can wander through all of the spaces uninhibited as many times as you wish throughout your visit. However, both museums have the same premise in that they allow you to immerse yourself in the artwork, with the artwork changing depending on the time, how you interact with it and the people in the space.
I said in my post about Visiting teamLab Borderless that what you wear can affect how you experience the art, for example, wearing plain colours (preferably white) means that the projected artwork can be seen clearly on you. While this example isn’t as much of an issue in Planets, as there are less instances of the art projecting onto you, what you wear is still VERY important. I wore the same thing as I did to Borderless as it worked very well, but I’ll explain more as we head into our first area…
WATER
The first area you’ll come across is the ‘water’ area, although I think it should be called the ‘water-and-mirror’ zone because only some have water, but all have mirrors! You’ll need to store your shoes, socks and bags (you will be checked) in a locker before entry (phones and cameras are fine to stay with you), so this will all be done barefoot. The water will come up to mid-calf at some points, so make sure you dress appropriately for this too – no one likes wet trousers! After every water room there are fresh towels to dry your feet before moving on so that there are no slip hazards. Also, if you’re worried about reflections from the mirrored floors, make sure you don’t wear a skirt, or the staff can lend you something to wear.
After a sloped waterfall entry and a very squashy floor called ‘Soft Black Hole’, you’ll find yourself in one of the most popular rooms, the ‘Infinite Crystal Universe’. This is similar to the one in Borderless but still just as impressive and you could spend ages in here watching the changing colours and ‘hyperspace’ light moments. The mirrors make the lights seem to just go on and on.
You’ll then head back into the water into another mirrored room and find yourself in what appears to be a never ending pond full of rainbow fish and flower petals. They react to your movement so it’s fun to watch them. A hidden room off to the side gives you a sight similar to the crystal room, except instead of strings of lights, it’s thin streams of water being protected on. By putting your hand into the stream, you’ll change the direction and therefore multiply the projections, which adds a hands-on element to the space.
The next mirrored room has no water, but instead it’s full of enormous inflatable spheres, which reminded me of the ones at their installation in the botanic gardens in Osaka. Some are tethered down, but others are free to be pushed around the space. The lights within the spheres change colour changing the environment and its ambience. The change is caused by people moving through the room, so the changes of light within the room will never be predictable. The last room in this area is a domed room filled with falling flowers, which feels a bit like being in a flower kaleidoscope. The types of flowers change over time, so you can just sit here and relax watching the flowers fall.
GARDEN
After this you have to pick up your shoes and belongings and head off to the next area. I chose to check out the moss garden next, which was filled with the same ovoid shapes as in the Osaka garden. They have steam gliding over the moss and you can wiggle the ovoids too. It was nice to see them in daylight this time, and these were mirrored so that they would be just as interesting in the day as they are when lit up at night. If you wanted to see both features, then I would suggest checking sunset on the day you want to visit and entering a bit before so you can have those different experiences.
The other part of the garden is the famous mirrored room of floating flowers. It’s extremely beautiful in here, despite the mass of other people, and you can often find little pockets all to yourself. The flowers move up and down creating spaces of different dimensions, but it’s important not to touch or hold them, even though it can be hard to completely avoid them at all times (especially if you’re tall). The flowers are real orchids and can grow without soil, by absorbing moisture from the air, so they’re forever changing and growing. I found this to be a pretty mesmerising space and I think the fact that the flowers were real and tangible, rather than a projection, made it feel very different to the other spaces. With the mirrors on all sides, it makes you feel as though you’re completely surrounded by flowers and I absolutely loved that. Apparently the scent of the orchids gets stronger at night, so this might be an interesting time to visit.
FOREST
This hands-on area is comprised of the Athletics Forest – a space full of physical challenges; Future Park – the collaborative, creative area; and the Catching and Collecting Forest – a space for searching for and collecting extinct animals to learn more about them. There are more lockers here for your items, so that you don’t have to carry them around with you, and if you’re wearing sandals or heels, you’ll be given rental shoes to wear, so better to have closed, comfy shoes on when visiting. This area is full of choices, so unlike the water area where you have to experience every room as a trail, in this part you can choose which activities you take part in and which you don’t.
Athletics Forest is basically a huge space to play, although you’ll need to queue a little for most of the experiences. There are spheres and planets to bounce across, aerial climbing and stepping stones to navigate, and slides too. This space was very, very popular with children, but super fun for adults too, although I think it would’ve been a lot more fun to experience this space with other people rather than doing it solo. I obviously made sure to experience everything though. The bouncy spheres are actually projected onto, to make it look as though they’re spinning at times, which is very trippy, but I really enjoyed bouncing across the room from ball to ball. Alongside this activity, I think I enjoyed the fruit slide and the trampoline planets the most. There are also rooms here that have wavy floors of different heights and filled with projections. Plus, there’s a corridor of ‘water’ with a ‘waterfall’ at the end, which is really creative.
Within the Athletics Forest is the Future Park. This is similar to the under the sea area in Borderless where you draw a picture and have it uploaded to the ocean on the walls around you. This time it’s a landscape and your animals will fly through the sky (even a dolphin?). I chose to do a butterfly and while there is an ability to control these on your smartphone once they’re on the walls, this seemed to be a bit unreliable. The other interactive spot here is an area where you can place objects to affect the little artwork people wandering about, by making them climb up things or bounce on things. You can create fire and water by placing certain items and spawn food from plates too.
The Catching and Collecting Forest was actually the most peaceful part of the whole museum. It was a lot quieter compared to the other spaces. All of the walls and floors in various rooms are covered in either a forest or underwater landscape. It feels dreamlike and bioluminescent and the purpose here is to explore and find as many animals as you can. These animals can be ‘captured’ with a Research Eye (bow and arrow) or net using your smartphone (or borrowed device), where you can learn all about them, and then release them back into the wild. The animals in these rooms are extinct, so while it’s an enjoyable activity, it does serve to educate too. If you capture the same animal more than once, you learn something new about them, so it won’t be repetitive. I think I would’ve enjoyed this space even more if the app functioned all of the time. It was frustrating to be in the position to catch an animal, only for the app to not acknowledge I’d caught the animal. However, it was an absolutely gorgeous space, a great concept and I loved taking part in it.
OPEN-AIR, RESTAURANT & SHOP
There’s an outdoor space with installations, a vegan ramen restaurant, a tea and sake bar and a snack truck. The ramen, tea and sake are all served in spaces where lights and projections are part of the dining experience, but the snack truck is just in the outside space. The Universe of Fire Particles installation definitely looks better at night, so it could be worth visiting later in the day to get the best of night and day in the moss garden and the experience of this in the dark too. I didn’t experience any of the food spots here as I was heading off for lunch elsewhere, but they do look like they’d be a unique experience.
BORDERLESS vs PLANETS
If I had to give my honest opinion, I had a better experience at Borderless and enjoyed it overall more, but Planets had some very fun and beautiful experiences, like the water area with fish and the flower garden, so if you’re able to do both, I would. As I said, the active area at Planets would be much more fun with a friend or a group, so if you’re travelling with others, that could be a great experience, but Borderless also seemed to have less children if that’s something that would affect your decision.
What I will say is that Planets is definitely not accessible for everyone. With an entire area with water, spaces with uneven flooring and physical activities (like climbing, jumping etc.), it might make this more fun for some people, but very difficult to experience for others. I think you can request to skip certain spaces if you are unable to access them by asking staff, but Borderless might be a more enjoyable experience if that’s the case.
Overall I had a great morning here and would highly recommend it. It was a different experience to Borderless, even though they share a few features or spaces, so it wouldn’t be overly repetitive if you’ve already visited. I spent around 2.5-3 hours here and I think that was plenty of time to see everything at a relaxed pace (plus I had to wait to enter the Athletics Forest too).
What do you think? Would you like to visit?
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