So much to see and experience – teamLab and Gundam

The day started with perfect weather. Luckily. Because the plan was to start the morning relaxed with a coffee in a highly recommended café. Emphasis on plan.

We stood in line for over an hour – with great weather, sunshine, and pleasant temperatures, it was no drama. However, in the end, we could not get our coffee: despite having four staff members, the café seemed to only manage to prepare a coffee every five to ten minutes. As our time window was becoming dangerously narrow, we reluctantly gave up and moved on. Coffee postponed, experience prioritized.

The main program point of the day had been planned for weeks: teamLab Planets Tokyo.

teamLab is a Japanese artist collective known worldwide for its digital, interactive art installations. At teamLab Planets, you literally immerse yourself in art: light, projections, mirrors, water, sounds, and movement merge into constantly changing spaces – and in which you become part of the installation.

It started with a ramp, down which water flowed gently, while projections continuously altered the surroundings. Walking barefoot through the water, while light and colors moved, was a pretty surreal beginning, at the end of which a small waterfall awaited us.

Several installations followed, each surpassing the last: a glowing waterfall of light, a room with a completely mirrored floor that disoriented anyone, and a light installation that truly deserved the name “infinite” – one felt as if standing in an endless space of floating lights.

Particularly impressive was the area where you wade through knee-deep water, while digital koi fish swim above you, disintegrating into flowers upon touch.

Shortly afterwards came the flower room: countless digital blooms that constantly change, grow, and disappear – beautiful, but also a little bit motion-sickness-inducing.

That wrapped up the water area, and we moved on to the so-called Forest area. Here, interactive installations took the spotlight, where light, movement, and balance played a role. Everything reacts to the visitors – nothing remains static.

An additional highlight was the Collecting Forest. Essentially Pokémon in real life – just with extinct animals. With a smartphone, you “catch” and register digital creatures that roam the space. Our ambitious goal was, of course, to collect them all. Unfortunately, both motivation and phone batteries eventually capitulated, so in the end, we had registered “only” about two-thirds of the animals.

The conclusion was a room full of upside-down hanging flowers that slowly rise and fall. Quiet, almost meditative – a very fitting conclusion to this overwhelming experience.

After so much art (a little over two hours), we moved towards Odaiba to the next icon: the giant Gundam statue. Gundam is an extremely popular Japanese anime and manga series revolving around gigantic battle robots and has been part of the country's pop culture for decades. The life-size statue is accordingly impressive – even if you had little to do with Gundam prior.

Right next to it is a large shopping center, where we browsed (and also bought) before slowly heading back toward our apartment.

Of course not without one last important stop: dinner.

And what can I say – there was ramen. Again. But who would want to complain? Ramen is just super tasty.

A day with so much to see, much to experience, and at least as many impressions. And even if the coffee in the morning didn’t happen: the rest more than made up for it.