teamLab Planets TOKYO Guide • Just One Cookbook

teamLab Planets Tokyo is a futuristic and immersive digital art experience in Tokyo. Unlike any other museum, the exhibits will surely delight the entire family.

Tokyo is a city with endless wonders. It’s filled with edgy buildings, interesting stores, and plenty of fun activities to discover. One of the most unique experiences in Japan is teamLab’s immersive exhibits. We’ve previously visited teamLab Borderless and our entire family had so much fun exploring the dark unknown. We couldn’t wait to go to teamLab Planets during our visit to Japan in Dec 2022.

The Planets exhibit is currently extended until the end of 2023. It was originally scheduled to shut down in the fall of 2020.

If you are not familiar with teamLab’s exhibits, they are massive digital or modern art and many of them are interactive. Visitors are encouraged to touch and interact to maximize their experience. Separated by rooms or space, each exhibit transports the visitors into a different realm.

The Planets TOKYO exhibits is located in a warehouse in Toyosu area, not far from the world-renowned Toyosu Fish Market. There are 2 main themes, water and garden. With 7 exhibits in the water area and 2 in the garden area.

One of the unique features of teamLab Planets TOKYO is that it’s experienced barefoot. Visitors take off their shoes (placed in shoe lockers) and walk into the mysterious spaces ahead.

Ready to check them out? Let’s go!

As visitors start making their way to the water area entrance in their bare feet, they are immediately greeted with a big surprise! Inside the entrance, warm ankle-high water comes rushing down a ramp. The feeling is fun and exhilarating as we start slowly wading to the waterfall at the top.

After the warm water walk, visitors are suddenly transitioned into a room where the floor is covered with a soft fabric. However, as you walk on the fabric it feels like quicksand. Sucking your legs in with each step as you try to move forward. Fortunately, no one was scared and almost everyone was laughing giddily trying to cross the room without falling over too much.

The dark room ends and transitions to a bright crystal palace, with sparkling lights forming different patterns and evolving into different shapes. We’ve seen a similar experience at Borderless but it was nevertheless delightful.

After the crystal universe, visitors are immediately transported to a completely different experience. The next room is filled up with knee-high cloudy water. Digital koi projected on the water are swimming around and interacting with visitors. Furthermore, the room is surrounded by mirror walls. It feels a bit like you’re in the movie Matrix.

Off to the side of the water room, there’s a somewhat hidden room with the graphics Matter is Void on the wall. Very cool!

The next room we entered is dream-like, filled with large spheres in the space on a mirrored floor. The colorful spheres are both suspended and on the floor. As they’re touched or bumped, they change color and the color change cascades throughout the room.

The last room in the water area is simply mindblowing, with colorful projections flying across the walls and ceiling. The design is meant to let visitors feel like they’re floating through space with explosions of floral patterns. We simply sat down and took in the amazing visuals in the room.

After the water area, we visited the garden area (it was added relatively recently). The moss garden from what we’ve seen is better enjoyed during the night. During the day, you feel like you’re in some alien land with metal eggs about to hatch. At night, the ovoids glow in different colors. As they’re pushed over the colors spread to other nearby ovoids.

As we entered the last room, it felt surreal. It’s a room full of orchids dangling from the ceiling. In addition, the orchids move up and down and create space for visitors to walk around. It gets a bit visually confusing as the floor is a giant mirror. You feel as though you are in a world surrounded by beautiful flowers.

Many of the exhibits at teamLab Planets feel like an out-of-this-world experience. Through imagery, color, touch, and smell it’s a truly wonderful and overwhelming sensory experience.

We spent a bit over an hour going through the exhibits and had an amazing time. We would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Tokyo.