Open since 2018, teamLab Planets started as ‘DMM.Planets’, a buzzy collaboration between e-commerce giant DMM.com and teamLab. Seven years later, the immersive museum expanded, adding a kaleidoscopic new area with more than 20 additional works to its original nine.
It’s an exciting update, especially for returning visitors craving something even more vibrant. Enter the multidimensional Athletics Forest, where you can balance, hop, slide, and bounce through a series of surreal vignettes. Imagine your favourite playground reconfigured in plush, neon, and physically challenging form. I skipped across spinning spheres in the Caterpillar House, bounced on celestial patterns in the Multi Jumping Universe, climbed through a glowing Flock of Colored Birds, pranced across colour-shifting Balance Stepping Stones, and zoomed down the Fruit Field – all before catching my breath. According to teamLab founder Toshiyuki Inoko, it’s designed as an antidote to our screen-obsessed world, encouraging people to ‘perceive art with their physical bodies’. Mission accomplished.
Collaboration is another big theme in the new works. In Future Park, visitors can colour and customise a creature, which is then scanned and projected onto an interactive digital world. A second chance to see your artwork comes in Sketch Umwelt World, where your drawing is projected and controlled via an app. Bonus: You can turn your masterpiece into a T-shirt, tote bag, or other merch at the Sketch Factory shop.
One of the biggest standouts? Catching Collecting Extinct Forest – a dazzling, rainbow-hued world where long-gone animals roam. Equipped with a digital ‘Research Net’ or ‘Research Arrow’, visitors can ‘catch’ these creatures to learn more about them. Capturing them with the net takes a little more effort than the arrow, but that’s part of the fun.
Of course, the original teamLab exhibits remain a must-see, and the element of surprise is key to the experience. Without giving too much away, no shoes are allowed inside this part of the museum, and you'll be wading through knee-deep water in some places. Wearing something above the knee is recommended, though we don’t suggest skirts because floor mirrors abound.
After all that sensory overload, refuel with ramen from Vegan Ramen UZU, a Kyoto-based Bib Gourmand spot exclusively available to teamLab visitors. Or grab a drink at the Glass House, a glowing cube where orchids from the Floating Flower Garden continuously regrow after shedding their blooms.
Whether you’re bouncing, climbing, wading, or catching, one thing’s for sure – teamLab Planets is anything but a passive experience.