I’m sure you’ve heard of teamLab’s museums in Tokyo, as they are always highly recommended, but what about their open air installation in Osaka?

Hop on the train and head about 15-30 minutes (depending on your Osaka station) outside of the city centre to Nagai Botanical Garden for a beautifully lit up immersive installation. It’s only open in the evenings/nighttime so that the lights show up, so if you want to explore the rest of the botanical garden you’ll have to come back at another time.


The entry is timed, so make sure to arrive a little in advance as you’ll queue to enter, but you’re free to explore the area for as long as you like! There are normally over 10 installations (some are linked together) and you can download the teamLab app to read about each one and there’s another you can use to interact with the fire projection exhibit. There is a route to follow that takes you through all of the different areas and there might be some seasonal installations too depending on when you visit. I was there during cherry blossom season, so there was a special floating installation on the lake with pink lights representing the sakura flowers.
I won’t share all of the art installations here, but I do want to share my favourites with you, which happen to be some of the biggest ones. I’ll also share some videos on my Instagram soon @thelittleedition.


The huge installation on the lake is called ‘Sculptures of Dissipative Birds in the Wind’ and it’s made up of huge shapes coming out of the ground slanting in different ways. The website states that “The giant sculptures in this artwork depict the continuous dissipation of energy into the environment by the birds that fly around them.” The projections are always in motion and change colours too, so the sculptures will look slightly different at different times, and the view will also change depending on the angle that you see them from.


Another area is made up of giant egg-shaped inflatables and it’s extremely interactive. You can run through them touching and pushing them, making them interact with each other and changing colours and shades too. They also react to being blown in the wind too! This area was so fun and the children visiting definitely enjoyed this area the most. Some of the eggs were far apart from each other and some extremely close together giving a maze-type feeling in some spaces.


Probably my most favourite space is the area with the glowing ovoid/bean shaped sculptures. Again, if you push them, they wobble and change in tone and colour and affect those around them, so the area seems to always be glowing and changing. Some of them are clear and look a little like glowing bubble shapes and some are cloudy and reminded me a bit of rose quartz when they glowed pink. It made me feel like I was walking on an alien planet with amazing unique flora surrounding me. They were so interesting to photograph and I think I spent most of my time in this area.


Overall I think I spent around 1hr30 here, and I moved through the areas at a very leisurely pace. The hours vary depending on the season (and when the sun sets) but last entry is always 20:30 for a closing time of 21:30. Ticket prices also vary depending on the season (not by much), so make sure to check the calendar on the website to see the difference. Tickets release about 2 months before, and the website states that April’s tickets will release in February (although March was already on sale right at the end of December, so it could be worth checking a little earlier). You can’t buy tickets on the door but the website is super easy to use and if you have a smartphone then you might not need to worry about printing your tickets either, as you’ll receive a link to your ticket page (keep in mind you’ll need internet access for this though).

If the cost of the teamLab museums in Tokyo seem a little too high for you, then this could be a more affordable option, as tickets are half the price. I loved both the teamLab Borderless museum in Tokyo (read my post) AND the Botanical Garden, but just keep in mind that while the art has an extremely similar vibe to it, they are very different experiences. Also, another thing to think about is that the gardens are obviously outdoors, so the experience is very weather dependent and there is the possibility that they will close it in stormy weather. Tickets for the gardens however, are sometimes still available in the days before, so you could risk it and wait to see what the weather forecast is like before you decide to buy, but that’s obviously not guaranteed. I will say though, if you hate being around lots of people, I think the gardens are way more relaxed, spread out and feel less crowded than some parts of the museum.
I’m a huge fan of teamLab’s experiences and I hope to visit more in the future.
Would you like to see more general posts from my Japan travels, or just the cute and fun stuff?
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