Mori Building Digital Art Museum

Mori Building Digital Art Museum by teamLab Borderless in Tokyo puts the Los Angeles immersive experience to shameeee… Anyway, at last, I have the time to write this post. Here is one of my many memorable experiences in Tokyo that I hope you will enjoy.

This building was inside Odaiba’s Palette town along with a shopping mall and a giant ferrous wheel. Odaiba is an artificial island in Tokyo. The town reminded me of a fake town in Disney Land or Las Vegas. I bought a backpack at the mall here because Japan has much better backpacks than the ones sold in the U.S. And since I was a tourist, they gave me a sales tax break, but I was not allowed to use the backpack while in Tokyo for tax reasons. I recently found out that the town, and the museum closed in 2022. The good news is teamLab Borderless will move to a new location, Azabudai Hills, and will reopen in 2024.

I ran into this museum by accident during the research for my trip, and I thought Wow! I have got to see this. It was new, and not many people knew about it at the time, not even my tour guides. I tried to buy tickets online. No luck. It kept declining my card. When I got to Tokyo, I asked my guide that if I reimburse her, would she buy us the tickets. She looked at me peculiarly, and asked, why don’t I buy it with my own card? I told her that I tried, but it rejected it. She said that I must be doing something wrong. So, she tried with several of my cards, and the site rejected them all. I told her that I think it’s because my credit card is not a Japanese card. She tried purchasing the tickets with her card, and it worked. This was pre-covid. Perhaps things have changed since.

 

Once inside, you take off your shoes, and walk through a dark hallway as you watch images move against the wall. The day I was there, the images were those of giraffes. After I went through a dark hallway, I walked into a room with a different imagery. If you notice, you will see that the giraffe from the first video fades into flowers in the second video.

So, what’s so special about this place? Well, the building is built for this type of art work, and it is a much larger experience unlike the one room experience in an old Los Angeles building on Sunset blvd. Also, the imagery is not just about the work of one artist. There is a large variety of artwork. My videos here and other people’s YouTube videos do not create the same experience as when you are there in person. The dark rooms, the music, the computer-generated images, and the lighting have a soothing effect on the mind, body, and soul and bring out different emotions. If you have plans to go to Tokyo, make sure you do not miss out on this.

As you go from room to room, and decide to go back to the first room where you started, you’ll notice that the moving images have changed to something else. They have interactive installations that touches on nature, perception, and how each of us view the world.

This room seemed as though I had stepped into the Avatar film and was walking through moving plants. It felt as if I was in a different time and space.

Besides the tea room, this was my favorite room. We sat on the floor along with many other people, just enjoying the waves. There were bean bags in the center for people to lean on. Others laid on the floor, and used their backpack as a pillow. It was completely relaxing, and I did not want to leave.

This is a room many do not know about, and hopefully when teamLab reopens, they will include this tea room. I think I ordered oolong tea with milk. It had a slightly sweet taste. After we were served, images of flowers showed up in our tea, and then the petals fell out of our cup onto the table cloth, and moved away. All I have to say is, you must try it. My tour guide enjoyed it as well.

 

Osaka—the food capital of Japan

Osaka is the city Tessa never gets a chance to discover as an adult because she gets into trouble while there. I signed up for a half-day tour and was told to get off at Namba station, walk a bit, and meet up with the rest of the group. There were about 15 of us. I could tell that the tour guide really loved his job as he patiently tried to answer everyone’s questions.

Our guide was telling us that there is a “Hello Kitty.” Bullet train. Many grownups are into the whole Hello Kitty character. It’s not my kind of a thing, but if you have kids, they may enjoy it.

Fugu, the pricy and poisonous puffer fish, was discussed as well and how people have died eating it because they didn’t prepare it correctly. In Japan, only licensed chefs are allowed to prepare Fugu.

Osaka has various mascots, but Billiken is their original mascot. Rubbing his feet is supposed to bring you good luck. There is a whole bizarre history behind this weird looking character which I will not get into here. To learn more, you can always google it. But briefly, dating back to the early 1900s, it was created and patented by a clever art teacher named Florence Pretz from Kansas City, Missouri. In the U.S., many people kept these figures around for luck. The figure became popular in Alaska before it made it into the Japanese culture as “The God of things as they ought to be.” I’m not a superstitious person, so I’m not sure what to think of this. I’m still trying to figure out why in the U.S., in this day and age, buildings lack 13^th floors and why street names skip the number 13.

Tsūtenkaku tower in Osaka—A landmark in Osaka inspired by the Eiffel Tower and sponsored by Hitachi. It has several observation decks, eateries, souvenir and sweets shops, a manga exhibit, and an area dedicated to the history of the tower.

The Shinsekai area where I bought a baked sweet potato. I’m not a fan of sweet potato, but when in Japan, you have to try it. It’s so much better than how we make it in the U.S. The Japanese really know how to bake it right. Yummm…

Dotonbori is full of stores, bars clubs, and restaurants. This is where Toshiro gets blitz at a bar because he is mad at Tessa for ghosting him.

The famous Glico Running Man is a landmark and an ad for a confectionary company. Tourists stand under it and try to imitate the running man.

This lady who was part of our group was a good sport about it, and volunteered to emulate the running man.

Once the tour was over, I took the subway to the Osaka Castle.

 

There is a bit of a walk before reaching the castle. The landscape is pretty.

And along the way, a small indoor area with shops and eateries invites visitors. I bought these chopsticks at one of the shops. It has my name in Japanese etched on it. I think I bought about 13 pairs of these for my family and friends with their names on each. Everyone really liked it. Although, compared to Chinese chopsticks, I find it harder to eat with these.

These kids were so so cute on a school excursion, and I loved their uniforms. So, I filmed them.

The Umeda Sky building – cross elevators and a bridge connect the two towers. Besides the observatory and a Floating Garden, there are offices on other floors.

There were a lot of teens and twenty-year-old couples visiting this place. Apparently, it’s a popular place for a date night. It was a busy Friday night and difficult to get a good shot. The open-air deck was under repair and closed to the public when I was there. Had it been open, I would have had a more enjoyable experience.

By far, one of the most unique experiences that I had was to visit The Osaka Museum of Housing and Living.

Located in a local area, this place was a bit difficult to find. Even my Japanese Taxi driver had a hard time pointing me in the right direction. It was raining outside which added to the dramatic aura of this museum.

On the day of my visit, the visitors were mostly Asians. I think I was the only non-Asian there, and the staff seemed amused that I took an interest in this place. This museum takes you back in time to the Edo period – How people lived, what they wore, what the streets were like. The set up, lets you walk through it as though you’re living in that time period. The lighting and scenes change to show visitors different conditions at that point in time. What was interesting was that towns had curfews and the gates would shut down at a certain time.

Happy Holidays from Los Angeles to Japan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is magic around us 365 days of the year, if we pay attention.

 

My friends and family don’t exchange gifts anymore, but we do buy gifts for the kids.

 

It’s always fun to bake a few cookies. 

This is a photo of my friend standing by a Christmas tree at The Dolby theater in Hollywood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took this picture a few days into November in Japan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas decorations go up early over there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This man in Osaka was so nice to let me take a picture of his shop that hadn’t opened up to public yet. He was just starting to set up his merchandise for sale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another picture I took while in Osaka. It was near the Umeda Sky Building.