In my Harajuku shopping guide, I admitted that Japan wasn’t necessarily originally high on my travel list. While I’m absolutely in love with both Tokyo and Japan now, the only other spot besides Harajuku that I knew I wanted to go to, was teamLab Borderless at the MORI Digital Art Building. After seeing several Instagram posts from some of my favorite fellow travel bloggers there, I knew that the inner basic millennial in me just had to go.
It did not disappoint. teamLab Borderless is immersive, interactive, and unique to any art installation I’ve seen prior. The space fully encompasses you and sweeps you into it. Of the 11 of us that went together, I don’t think I single person left that space without feeling chills sweep through their body at least once.
That being said, teamLab Borderless has become a destination in Tokyo for tourists and locals alike, which is why there are a few things you should consider while planning your trip:
1. THE LANTERN ROOM
Arguably the most instantly recognizable room in all of Borderless is the Lantern Room. It photographs beautifully, and is some sort of magic. Unfortunately, behind every magically Instagram shot is a completely un-glamorous story. The Lantern Room was one of two that I was really looking forward to at Borderless, however I ultimately chose to skip it due to the wait time to get in of…1 hour and 45 minutes. If you do want the magical lantern shot, go early. Literally be there when Borderless opens. Even if you go later in the day like I did, and chose to wait in that massive queue, you’ll likely be unable to get a shot alone or without people in the room as it’s very crowded. Borderless opens at 10am, my friends and I went around 1pm, and it was already crazy busy. Truthfully, two of my friends did chose to visit it, and ultimately decided that the queue didn’t justify the experience. Borderless has so many amazing rooms and experiences, that honestly, I don’t feel as though I lost out on anything special by choosing not to go.
2. WANDER
The best part of teamLab Borderless is that because of the way the rooms are set up, it very much feels like a maze and is very, very easy to get lost in. Let the experience and installations guide you along, and don’t be afraid to get lost. Even around the time that we chose to leave, I still felt as though I was stumbling upon rooms I hadn’t seen yet. To this day, I still can’t quite seem to figure out just how big teamLab Borderless is, because we all really just lost perception of space and time as we moved through it. Given that teamLab has stated that the purpose of this installation is to be a “group of artworks forming one bordlerless world,” I think they accomplished their vision successfully.
3. THE RIGHT ADDRESS
The address on teamLab Borderless’ official Instagram page? It’s wrong. It might be correct, if you’re trying to get to their offices, not the actual art museum. My friends and I made the mistake of following that address and ended up in a completely different location, in the middle of an office park and outside of the main part of Tokyo, about three transfers away from the Mori Digital Art Building. 3-8, Aomi 1-Chōme Koto, Tokyo Japan 135-0064. That’s the correct address, don’t listen to anything else. For whatever reason, when we were in Japan, our maps completely changed in language from English to Japanese, and we were unable to search for the building as we would in the United States {if you search teamLab Borderless on Apple Maps here, it appears in search right away. That was not the case when we were lost in an office park in Tokyo}. You’ll have to walk through an open air mall, through a car showroom, and across a bridge to best access it, so don’t be surprised if you can’t find it right away!
4. DON’T BE TOO CONCERNED ABOUT PHOTOS
While yes, teamLab Borderless is *so* Instagram-worthy, because the installations have so much movement within them, photos really don’t do them justice. Like, at all. Take time just to take in everything around you, and capture it with video instead! I have tons of footage from my visit to teamLab Borderless that will be in my upcoming Tokyo vlog that I absolutely can’t wait to share with you all!
xx,
E
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