teamLab Borderless

When teamLab Borderless first opened in Odaiba in 2018, it set a Guinness record as the most visited single-artist museum in the world. It closed in 2022 to relocate, and reopened in February 2024 in the basement of Azabudai Hills, the new Mori Building district between Roppongi and Tokyo Tower — larger, more ambitious and, for many visitors, the better of the two teamLab museums in the city. The concept is in the name: there are no borders between the works. Artworks leave their rooms and travel through corridors, interact with each other and mingle, so that a herd of digital animals or a torrent of flowers may pass you in a passage and reappear somewhere else. There is no map and no set route; you push through dark curtains into vast mirrored halls, climb into a forest of hanging lamps that light in chain reaction when you stand beneath them, and wander a waterfall of light that splashes around your feet. Signature spaces include the Bubble Universe, a room of countless glowing spheres and reflections; the Light Sculpture spaces of moving beams that seem solid enough to touch; and the Microcosmoses, where orbs of light streak through the darkness. Rooms change over time, and returning visitors find new works. The museum is directly connected to Kamiyacho Station on the Hibiya subway line, opens from early morning into the evening, and closes on the second Tuesday of each month, with hours that vary by season.

Tickets are sold by date and time slot, and adult prices use dynamic pricing — busier days cost more, and buying on site adds a small surcharge. Each visitor needs their own ticket, including teenagers; very young children enter free. Allow at least two hours and preferably three, because wandering without a map is the point and the best rooms reveal themselves only to people who keep exploring. Comfortable shoes are fine here — unlike Planets, you keep them on — and dark clothing is less ideal than light colors, which pick up the projections beautifully in photographs. There is an optional tea house inside where a bowl of green tea becomes an artwork as flowers bloom on its surface; it costs extra and is a small, lovely moment of calm in the middle of the sensory overload.

How it compares with Planets: Borderless is the explorer's museum, a labyrinth with more rooms and more variety, ideal for people who like discovery and do not mind feeling slightly lost. Planets is the sensory set piece, a linear route through water, soft floors and flowers. If you only have time for one, choose Planets for the iconic barefoot water rooms or Borderless for the scale and sense of adventure. They are on opposite sides of the bay, so do not try to squeeze both into a single afternoon.

Azabudai Hills itself is worth an hour: a garden-filled complex of shops, restaurants and the Mori JP Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Japan, with a food market and cafes in the lower levels. Tokyo Tower is a ten-minute walk away and the obvious pairing for sunset, and Roppongi's art triangle — the Mori Art Museum, the National Art Center and Suntory Museum of Art — lies a short walk or one stop north. Kamiyacho Station's Exit 5 brings you straight into the museum building. Because the museum is underground and climate-controlled, it is an excellent choice for rainy days and the hottest afternoons of summer, when outdoor sightseeing is a struggle. Lockers are available for coats and bags, and strollers may be restricted in some rooms, so travel light. Photography is allowed throughout, and the rooms are at their most dramatic when they are not crowded, which is one more reason to book the first slot of the day.