“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” — Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
Hello! You can find my other stories related to our Japan Trips here:
- Tokyo Trip with Mari-Alina Timoshchuk — Part 2
- Tokyo Trip with Mari-Alina Timoshchuk — Part 1
- Nara Japan — Part 2
- Nara Japan — Part 1
- An Osaka Holiday
- Kyoto Holiday
- Ryokan Stay in Hakone
For this post I wanted to talk about one of my favorite parts of our trip which was a visit to teamLab Planets in Tokyo.
teamLab Planets is a museum where you walk through water, created by art collective teamLab. The artworks change depending on th presence of people and the existence of the artworks is continuous with your body and with others. It’s a truly special experience and one of the highlights of our trip.
It’s strongly encouraged to purchase tickets before hand online. The site is easily accessible with a bus trip. It’s located by the water but overall it’s not in a particularly busy part of Tokyo. Make sure to wear comfortable clothing. When you enter the museum they’ll provide you with a locker to put away your shoes and other items.
Dance of Koi and People:
This is a beautiful exhibit where you step into a indoor pool of water where the surface of the water is illluminated by dazzling colors, flowers, and fish that scatter and interact with their surroundings. The flowers that blom will change along with the seasons. It’s a feast for the eyes and such a beautiful experience.
The Infinite Crystal Universe:
Pointilism uses an accumulation of distinct dots of color to create a picture. In this exhibit, light points are used to create three dimensional objects The light sculpture extends infinitely in all directions. People use their smartphones to select stars to throw into The Infinite Crystal Universe. These stars are reborn in three dimensions, creating the artwork. The presence of people and their locations within the work affects these three-dimensional stars, which in turn influence and are influences by other stars in space.
Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers:
One of the most stunning exhibits is surely this one. Seasonal flowers bloom and change with time as they move across the sky. You can lie down or sit still in the space and you feel like eyour body is floating and dissolving into the world of falling flowers. The flowers grow, bud, bloom and then the petals fall eventually with the flowers withering and dying.
I’m Ukrainian and I particularly enjoyed coming into the season where a lot of the flowers were sunflowers and reminded me of my Grandmas home back in Ukraine with the large sunflowers in the garden and the plethora of sunflower seeds at the table.
Flattening 3 Colors and 9 Blurred Colors:
This space is filled with spheres of light. People move through the spheres and enter the space. When the spheres change color, the space itself shifts between a collection of spheres forming a three dimensional space and a flat color wall.
When people move through or push them, the spheres change color and emit a tone specific to that color. The surrounding spheres respond one after another, resonating and emitting the same tone and light color.
To me it was a beautiful metaphor for our influence on the world around us and how a gentle touch or a heavy one can have a cascading effect on our surroundings.
Floating Flower Garden:
This floating flower garden consists of three-dimensional mass of flowers. The artwork space is completely filled with flowers, but as the flowers float up above people, open spaces are created. Because of this, people are able to freely wander around the flower mass space.
It’s like a floating and modern zen garden.
Moss Garden of Resonating Microcosms:
This is a particularly fun exhibit where the work changes between daytime and after sunset. After sunset the work begins to glow and during the day it can be seen as a more metal subject. We went to see it during the day so we were able to to enjoy the non-glowing forms surrounded by moss with a light dew from the weather.
They continually add new exhibits to the museum so I encourage people to consider going even if they have enjoyed a previous teamLabs exhibit.
I hope this helped plan your trip! Thank you for reading.
