teamLab Borderless — Azabudai Hills
teamLab Borderless relocated from Odaiba to a new expanded space in Azabudai Hills (Minato-ku) in 2024. The new venue is larger than the original, with more installations and an improved flow. The concept: a building with no maps, where artworks overflow from room to room without defined borders, evolving and interacting with each other and with visitors continuously.
The experience takes 2–3 hours minimum for a thorough visit. Key installations include the Forest of Resonating Lamps (a mirrored room of suspended light balls that react to your presence), the Athletics Forest (a physical installation requiring climbing and movement — different from the digital rooms), and multiple projection rooms where the visual environment responds to touch and movement. Different rooms have dramatically different character — some are crowded and social, others nearly empty and meditative.
Tickets: ¥3,200 (adult), ¥1,000 (child 4–12). Book in advance — weekends sell out 2–3 weeks ahead. Select a specific entry time; there is no time limit once inside.
teamLab Planets — Toyosu
teamLab Planets in Toyosu is a smaller venue with a more focused concept: physical immersion. Visitors remove their shoes and wade through water in one room, lie on the floor looking up through infinite light in another, and walk through a garden of overgrown flowers that bloom in response to touch. The experience is more concentrated than Borderless — typically 60–90 minutes — and the individual installations are more physically intense.
The Universe of Water Particles (the wade-through-water room) is the signature installation — a shallow rectangular pool with water cascading down the walls, visitors walking through ankle-deep water with projection mapping covering every surface. Wear easy-to-remove footwear and be prepared to get your ankles wet.
Tickets: ¥3,200 (adult). Same advance booking recommendation applies. The Toyosu location is convenient to combine with the Toyosu Market (tuna auctions accessible by advance reservation).
Which to Choose
Choose Borderless if: you want to spend 3+ hours exploring, you enjoy getting deliberately lost, you're going as a group that will separate and reunite throughout. Choose Planets if: you have limited time (2 hours), you want more physically intense immersion, you're with young children (the water rooms delight them), or you're combining with the Toyosu area. If you can only do one and you've never been to either: Borderless at Azabudai Hills is the more comprehensive experience.
Our Recommended Places
Booking: Book both venues via their official websites. Use credit card — no convenience store purchase required for overseas visitors. Weekends sell out 2–3 weeks ahead; weekdays 1 week.
Wear: At Planets, remove shoes at the entrance — bring easy slip-on footwear. The water room has a 25cm pool; ankles will get wet. Avoid long skirts or loose trousers.
Photography: Freely allowed everywhere. Long exposure settings on phones produce the most dramatic results in the projection rooms. The Forest of Resonating Lamps is the most photogenic single room.
Crowds: Both venues limit capacity but feel crowded on weekend afternoons. Weekday mornings immediately after opening are the least crowded times at both venues.