Universe of Water Particles on a Rock where People Gather

Today we visit the famous Borderless art museum.

Previously, Tokyo Westside

Shinjuku

Ohayou~ Kabukicho sure has a different vibe during the day without all the crowds and lights.

Ichiran Ramen

But, first, breakfast at the ultimate ultimate loner spot.
You sit in your own cubicle, order using a form and have your food served without a single word spoken. Each table gets its own water tap too.
It surprised me when those blinds on the other side of the table opened up to reveal the kitchen and a staff member directly placed my ramen on the table. The gap was low enough that you don’t even make eye contact. I love this future.

Puddi puddi~

👍/10

Never run out of toilet paper again.

A dating cafe for meeting new people except the girls expect to be paid 👌💸

Goodbye, Shinjuku.

Asakusa

For the 2nd half of my parents’ visit we’re staying in Asakusa.

These little bag stools are handy.

Ok, we’ve dropped off our luggage, back out we go.

Odaiba

I visit the artificial island every trip. There’s always something to do.

Megaweb Toyota City Showcase

Thought we’d quickly drop by since it’s along the way.

F U T U R E

お台場行ったらメガウェブの解体してた pic.twitter.com/xIN51LlxFZ

— Sakurai Garage (@sakurai_garage) June 16, 2022

And now the place is gone. F.

teamLab Borderless Art Museum

Still have to queue after buying your tickets…

Umbrella security.

Taking a pic so I don’t forget my code. Got this umbrella during my first 2014 trip.

Borderless World

Forest of Flowers and People

We’re in.
Woah, pretty~ …and extremely camera unfriendly.

Oh, the website has much better photos and videos of everything. Just go look at that instead.

Walk, Walk, Walk

The corridors connecting the rooms reminds me of Looney Toons.

This episode terrified me as a kid.

3D Light Sculpture

This was cool, cycling through different shapes and patterns made from light and smoke.

Mirrors are used all over the place to make the space seem bigger than it really is.
The trick works really well in these dark environments. Just, don’t wear a skirt to this place.

Woah, it’s like Beat Saber~ ^{totally not photoshopped}

Black Waves

Damn, selfies looked aesthetic in this room. Your skin just glows.

Parents will take any opportunity to nap.

Wander through the Crystal World

r8 my gamer room

In the matrix #selfie.

Athletics Forest

Follow the lilypads.

Feels like being underwater.

TANOSHII!!!

The Multi Jumping Universe symbolizes the creation of the universe’s galaxies as gravitational waves from your fat ass ripple out throughout space.

Inverted Globe, Giant Connecting Block Town

This place was more dynamic than I was expecting. This is a city sim room with simulated vehicles, animals and a river system. It’ll even generate new roads if you re-arrange the houses.
A 3D version of the town you created is shown on the TVs from the POV of patrolling helicopters.

Graffiti Nature - High Mountains and Deep Valleys, Red List

An ecosystem simulation room of living animals, plants and insects. Plants bloom around you if you stay still while the animals hunt each other down to eat or fug.

Draw your own animal to be birthed into the world.
They die if you step on them. Humans remain at the top of the food chain.

Forest of Resonating Life

The balloons’s colors react to you pushing them around and the effect resonates out into the surrounding balloons. They also supposedly play sounds but it was too noisy to notice.
Even alone in the midst of the forest, you feel the presence of people around you from the ripples of colours. Or so the website says.

Aerial Climbing through a Flock of Colored Birds

The website goes into deep detail about all the technical effects in each room and their symbolic meanings but I don’t think anyone noticed. Everybody was just enjoying the pretty lights lol.
Anyway, I think this room got a v2 after I was there since the one on the website has swings that light up when people step on them and react to the birds flying around the walls.

This one isn’t on the website at all so I guess it was removed. Now we’ll never know the deep meaning of the glowing rock climbing gym.
A lot of these rooms could really have benefitted from some kind of path. There isn’t a direction for you to move through these rock climbing holds or the swings from the previous room, you just kinda wander around aimlessly until you get bored.

Future Park

Sliding through the Fruit Field

Catch the Beat x Fruit Ninja

Sketch Aquarium: Connected World

Another simulated ecosystem, water level version.
You can see the mirror trick really well here.

You may call us a family of artists.

Go forth, my child.

There she is!

In the land ecosystem room, the animals eat those lower on the food chain. While in the water room the fish eat these randomly spawning bags of treasures.

That’s a catfish.

Looking at the website, either we missed a bunch of rooms or they were added after. It was a bit of a maze in there. We also skipped the famous lamp room since it had its own long queue.

I give the place a neato/10. Would recommend…except this place is now closed.
It’ll re-open in central Tokyo in a few years. In the meantime, teamLab also have other similar exhibitions around Tokyo you should check out.

Wendy’s Restaurant

Finally trying out the anime girl place.

Menu for reference.

Another restaurant where I don’t need to interact with anybody. Future ❤

Never seen lemon juice like this before. Is this a Wendy’s thing or a Japan thing?

We got a bit of everything.
I still don’t think soda and ice cream go together.

Pretty good as far as fast food goes/10

Venus Fort Shopping Mall

Shopping time for my mum.

Mmm, Bikkle, while I wait. The soda version isn’t as nice as the flat one. FIJ.

t i t t y

Another spot in Odaiba that’s closing down. This blog is nothing but ghosts.

Maruetsu Odaiba Supermarket

We passed by a grocers. Shopping time for my dad, he loves visiting local markets.

Exotic food section.

Suspiciously cheap cola.

All the Strong Zeroes

My mum, once again, displaying her superpower of befriending random strangers. Feels like half the Japanese retail force is staffed by the Chinese, which is starting to seem more useful here than English.

DiverCity Tokyo Plaza

Those cotton candy are huge.

This might be a case of too much green onions.

One last stop before heading back. Made it just in time to catch the hourly light show.

They replaced the one we saw in 2014 with this new one from the Unicorn series.
It’s bigger, lights up and “transforms” between modes. It’s in Destroyer mode right now.

Trans-am! (I don’t know if that’s a thing outside the 00 universe)

POV: Your country’s about to get liberated.

Definitely more sleek and modern now.
Ok, let’s get outta here. It’s raining and this camera isn’t waterproof.

Asakusa

Back to our new home (for the next couple days).

築地すし一番 西浅草店 Sushi Restaurant

My parents aren’t a big fan of American fast food so as soon as they saw a sushi restaurant near our hotel they immediately headed in. Wish I had inherited some of that food impulsiveness.

Oh, hey, it’s the sake they sold at Hyper Japan.

Authentic uni

Could’ve sworn there was a table of Yakuza in the corner haha…

Abalone. These boys are considered a delicacy in many parts of the world and their dishes can get very expensive. These 2 were “only” ¥1320 though.

It was kinda gruesome watching them boil alive, as they squirmed about in futility, trying to escape their hellish fate.

This place was decent/10.

🅱

Hotel Keihan Asakusa

Bed, at last. This hotel doesn’t do rooms for 3 so I have my own. Not as nice as the Ibis, though also not as pricey. Just a pretty standard dated-looking business hotel.

Epilogue

Dragged my parents about all over the place.

That entire Palette Town area…gone… (soon).

Next time, Ueno~ Ueno~~