teamLab Planets

You take your shoes off at the entrance and put them in a locker, and you do not put them back on until you leave. Then you walk a fixed route through a sequence of rooms, several of which involve water.

The first is a soft sloping floor of warm water you climb barefoot. Later there is a dark hall where you wade through knee-deep water with koi projected onto the surface; the fish respond to where people are standing, and when they touch a person they scatter into flowers. Another room is a mirrored space filled with suspended illuminated spheres you can push. The last is a garden of orchids hanging at head height that rise as you approach and close behind you.

The important difference from Borderless is that Planets is physical. You are not looking at projections; you are standing in water, on soft floors, in the dark, pushing objects around. It is more effective for children and considerably more effective for people who are sceptical about digital art.

Allow ninety minutes to two hours. The route is one-way, so you cannot go back to a room you liked.

Wear shorts, or trousers you can roll above the knee. The water is knee-deep in places and you will be in it. The venue provides loose shorts to change into if you need them and this is entirely routine, but bringing your own is simpler.

Long skirts and dresses do not work. Several floors and walls are mirrored, which the venue warns about, and there is water. Change or borrow.

Socks and stockings come off. The barefoot rule is absolute in the water areas. There are places to wash and dry your feet on the way out, and lockers for everything you are carrying.

The water is treated and the venue publishes what it uses to sanitise it. It is warm rather than cold and the rooms are heated, so this is not the ordeal it sounds like in January.

Phones are fine and most people photograph everything. As with Borderless, the rooms are darker than a camera would like and the pictures will be worse than being there.

Tickets are bought online for a specific date and time slot and the popular slots go first. Unlike Borderless, the price does not move with demand, so booking early buys you the slot you want rather than a discount.

The end of 2027 closure is the reason this page carries a date rather than a vague recommendation. If you are planning a trip for 2027, this is a thing with a deadline; if you are planning for 2028, assume it is gone unless teamLab says otherwise. Borderless at Azabudai Hills has no announced end date.

Toyosu is otherwise unremarkable, which makes the obvious pairing the tuna auction a few minutes away – free, extremely early, and finished long before Planets opens. A morning of the auction and a sushi breakfast, then a nap, then Planets in the afternoon, is an efficient and slightly deranged day. Tsukishima is two stops away for dinner.