Today I took a walk over to the Teamlab Borderless art installation. This is a beautiful contemporary art exhibit designed by Epson. The walk over was about an hour, each way, and on the way there it was a drizzle like rain, which was actually rather refreshing considering how hot and humid it has been since I arrived. I got to the line waiting to go in and had numerous little dots of water on my camera and phone, but nothing concerning. The line waiting to go in was very long, but it moved rather quickly and soon I was inside.
Once I got inside I was amazed at the show I was seeing. There are some amazing displays on the walls and floor, the music fills the space wonderfully without being loud, there are people everywhere and yet at times I felt almost alone with the colours, motion and sounds. The place is almost maze like with a number of different rooms, each with their own animations. I think I visited all of the rooms.
The main area is a series of rooms with random mirrored sections and a pattern that moves across the walls shifting from place to place. In one area is a series of angled platforms that make a rock like structure under a waterfall type presentation. It was beautiful watching the patterns shift and flow.
There are three second floor regions. The athletic area, which is really designed for children with more running and bouncing activities present. Also in that area is a tea house. The tea was wonderful, I had a chamomile green tea latte, and the presentation was really neat. They place your bowl under a projector lens and it displays a vivid pattern on your tea. When you pick up your tea to drink that pattern reacts and animates away from your tea until you put it down again.
The second area is a lantern area, with mirrored floor and walls. The reflections are intense and it feels like you are in an infinite area of lanterns, above and below you as far as you can see. This area was a line up of about an hour, and it is limited in viewing time because of the line. I still got some great pictures.
The last upstairs area was a nest. Again there was a line of about an hour. When you climb inside the nest you are actually on a netted floor above mirrors again. You are expected to lay down, as it give you the best viewing angle. There was a lot of animated creatures and spiral patterns, almost lifelike across the walls and ceiling. Also this was a timed viewing. You arrive at the start of the patterns and leave when they finish. Some of the fun was just watching people climb along the netting in and out.
My favourite place was a room with a few beanbags in the centre and a rotating series of waves that moved around the room, It was a very calming room and I even saw one person asleep on one of the bean bags. I returned to that room a number of times.
Other than the lantern room I think the most impressive for me was the LED light room. The lights could be controlled by an app on your phone to create different preset feels. Rain, fire, earth, moon, sun, and a bunch of others. I did not bother to download the app since there were so many people in the room anyway. Again mirrored floor and walls, and the effects were incredible. Especially the rain effect.
After visiting for a number of hours I walked across the walkway and had Wendy’s for lunch/supper. It was just after four. I ordered a very typical american meal of double burger with cheese and a pop. The food was messy but very good, tasting slightly better than back home and definitely better presented. I would have liked to try a local specialty but the lines were long and I had a hard time figuring out what they were without asking a lot of questions. Then I had my hour walk back home. All in all a very good day.
Tomorrow will be Ueno park, the museum and maybe the Zoo.
My fun blog 