Japan Day 3: Tokyo TeamLab Planets and Asakusa Tour

Where and when: Tokyo, Japan 9th October 2024

0900: Yesterday’s rain was carrying on non-stop today, so we decided to keep our exploration of Tokyo to indoors and visit Teamlab Planets. This is the sister attraction of TeamLab borderless I visited on Day 1.

Whereas TeamLab borderless is about digital art, TeamLab Planets is all about sensory immersion.

There are a dozen or so exhibits each of which will engage one or more of your senses – the ones that left a big impression were as follows:

Real water and digital fish: You get to walk through water with digital fish swimming around you. Also see the video of floating flowers on my YouTube channel)

Sphere room – exactly what it says on the tin. Room filled with large spheres about 5 feet in diameter. You’ve got to cross from one side to the other, ideally without getting rolled over – the catch? Everyone else is trying to do the same, so the sphere get pushed in every direction

Hanging orchids – These orchids are on proximity sensitive harnesses. So when you sit still, they move towards you, but if you try to grab them, then they move away from you.

Overall, it was a worthwhile experience, and definitely a great way to keep out of the rain. But if I had to choose between TeamLab planets and and Teamlab Borderless, I would pick the latter – I found the digital art at TeamLab borderless to be more evocative, and given the art is constantly changing, I felt there was more to experience. Also, TeamLab borderless is in Central Tokyo (near Abudai Hills) and easy to get to, whereas TeamLab Planets is on the outskirts and takes at least 1 hour on the metro.

1400: In the afternoon, we went on a tour of the Asakusa area with Tokyo Localized.

The “Thunder Gate” entrance to Asakusa Temple

Nakamisi Dori – shopping street leading Asakusa Temple

1630: In the evening, we went on Vegan food tour in Tokyo. This food tour (booked via byFood) was the only one that guaranteed vegetarian cuisine in Tokyo (if you know of others please let me know in the comments below).

The tour started at the Tokyo Mise store of “Tsuruya Yoshinobu”. They are a renowned sweetmaker, with history of nearly 200 years. Originating in Kyoto, they have branches all over Japan. Calling them sweets is an injustice – they are really edible works of art. As part of the tour, we each got to pick a sweet from a menu and watch it being made infront of us. The chefs really are master craftsmen, creating works on art from very simple ingredients. (See video on my YouTube channel)

Then we stopped at a few more sweet shops, buying sugar glazed sweet potatoe fries, Daifuku (a sweet round mochi) stuffed with grapes and a few other sweets.

Tour ended with a vegan Ramen dinner at T’s Tanten. T’s Tanten is a vegan chain restaurant in Tokyo that specialises in Ramen. The Ramen and the gyoza was delicious.

We finished the tour with a walk around Ginza.

The tour was good, but it wasn’t the best value for money – the tour cost 13000 yen per person, but the cost of the food per person (including the sweets demo) only came to about 4000 – 5000 yen per person. However, what you are paying for really the insider knowledge, as I am not sure we would have been able to try all these different foods without going on the tour.

It’s our last day in Tokyo (for now) and tomorrow we are going to Kyoto. Tune in for my next post to see one of the most memorable experiences of the Japan trip.