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.