teamLab Planets in Tokio, a museum you walk through barefoot

In Toyosu on the eastern side of Tokio, teamLab Planets is an art museum that asks visitors to remove their shoes and step directly into digital works of light, sound and water. Opened in 2018 by the international art collective teamLab together with DMM.com, it occupies a purpose-built structure near Tokyo Bay that is laid out less like a gallery of pictures and more like a sequence of immersive environments.

Walking through water and light

The defining experience at teamLab Planets is the physical path through spaces where water is as central as the projections on the walls. In the Water Area, shallow pools fill entire rooms, and moving images are projected on and above the surface so that artworks respond to the movement of bodies through the water. The museum is explicitly described as a place “where you walk through water”, and the requirement to go barefoot turns the exhibition into a continuous, tactile encounter with each installation.museum where you walk through water Within this part of the building, large-scale works run across floors and walls, surrounding visitors with fields of colour, shifting forms and mirrored reflections.

The other defining sequence is the Garden Area, where living plants and digital projection overlap to form environments described as gardens “where you become one with the flowers”. Here, masses of flowers are arranged three-dimensionally around the visitor, and motion-sensing technology alters the projections as people move through. Together, the Water Area and the Garden Area form an unbroken route through the building, with four major artwork spaces and two gardens acknowledged as the core of the museum’s layout.Water Area and Garden Area

An art museum shaped by digital technology

teamLab Planets is described formally as a digital art museum, and every work in the building is constructed from light, projection and programmed interaction rather than fixed canvases or static sculpture. The project is credited to teamLab, an international art collective known for large-scale interactive installations, in collaboration with Japanese internet company DMM.com.art museum that utilizes digital technology The building in Toyosu opened to the public in July 2018, and has since been presented under the name teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM, linking the exhibition to its corporate partner.opened in July 2018

The museum occupies the address 6-1-16 Toyosu in Koto City, a waterfront district built on reclaimed land facing Tokyo Bay.6-1-16 Toyosu, Koto City Its galleries are enclosed within a low, industrial-looking structure whose interior has been redesigned to support projection surfaces, mirrored chambers and controlled lighting. Rather than separating artworks from visitors by barriers, the installations are designed so that people pass through and touch them, with sensors and software altering the visual and acoustic environment in response to movement. This emphasis on digital interaction places teamLab Planets within a wider trend of technology-based art museums, but its focus on full-body immersion and bare feet gives it a particular identity among contemporary spaces in Tokio.

Toyosu, transport links and the physical route

teamLab Planets stands close to Shin-Toyosu Station on the Yurikamome Line, an automated transit route that runs over the waterfront districts of eastern Tokio. The museum is described as a one-minute walk from Shin-Toyosu and around ten minutes on foot from Toyosu Station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line, placing it within easy reach of central neighbourhoods via rail.walk from Shin-Toyosu station The address sits within Koto Ward, in an area that also contains Toyosu Market and commercial towers built along the bay.

The route through the museum itself is structured as a set sequence rather than a free-choice gallery plan. Visitors pass through curtained thresholds, sloped walkways and narrow connecting spaces into each major installation, and the barefoot requirement applies throughout most of the building. The floors in the Water Area are wet and stepped, with shallow basins and channels, while the Garden Area contains raised platforms and areas filled with plants suspended at different heights. The enclosed rooms are darkened to emphasise projection, and some passages feel narrow or low, so the visit involves a physical negotiation of space as much as viewing of works.

Visiting teamLab Planets: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• teamLab Planets is located at 6-1-16 Toyosu in Koto City on the eastern side of Tokio, near Tokyo Bay, within walking distance of Shin-Toyosu Station on the Yurikamome Line and Toyosu Station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line.
• The museum route includes areas of shallow water that cover the floors, stepped walkways and enclosed passages, and visitors are required to go barefoot through much of the building.
• Toyosu is a modern waterfront district in Tokio with commercial buildings and Toyosu Market nearby, so an urban streetscape surrounds the museum despite its inward-looking, immersive interiors.
• The official language is Japanese and the currency is the yen.
• Entry requirements depend on your nationality; UK travellers can check the FCDO travel advice at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, Irish travellers the Department of Foreign Affairs at ireland.ie.

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Frequently asked questions about teamLab Planets

Where is teamLab Planets located in Tokio?

teamLab Planets stands at 6-1-16 Toyosu in Koto City on the eastern side of Tokio, close to Shin-Toyosu Station and Tokyo Bay.

What should visitors expect on a visit?

Visitors follow a set path through immersive rooms filled with digital projections, including spaces where shallow water covers the floors and gardens filled with flowers and light.

What makes teamLab Planets distinctive among museums?

The museum is distinctive for requiring bare feet and for constructing every work as interactive digital art, turning the entire building into a sequence of walk-through installations rather than traditional galleries.