Introduction

teamLab Planets, in Tokyo's Toyosu district, is a barefoot, walk-through digital art museum where visitors move through water, light, and projected environments rather than just viewing art on walls. It's also one of two separate teamLab museums currently open in Tokyo, and travelers planning a trip frequently mix it up with the other one. This guide covers what's actually inside as of the museum's 2025 expansion, current ticket pricing and access, and how to plan a visit without booking the wrong slot or heading to the wrong side of the city.

What Makes It Different

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Opened in 2018, teamLab Planets is built around full-body immersion rather than observation from a distance — visitors remove their shoes and, in several rooms, wade knee-deep through water as part of the exhibit itself. Crucially, the visual content isn't prerecorded or looped: it's rendered in real time by a computer program that responds to visitors' movement and presence, which means the specific patterns and interactions any individual visitor experiences genuinely won't repeat exactly the same way for the next person, or even for the same visitor on a return trip.

The Koi Pond

In one signature installation, digital koi swim across a water surface that visitors wade directly into. The koi's movement responds both to the presence of visitors and to the other koi around them — and when a koi "collides" with a person in the water, it transforms into a burst of flowers that scatters across the surface. Which flowers bloom changes with the seasons throughout the year, so the specific installation looks different depending on when you visit.

The Floating Flower Garden

Photo: Maarten Heerlien / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Source ↗

A separate room houses roughly 13,000 live orchids suspended overhead, which shift and part to create open space as visitors move beneath them — real, living flowers integrated directly into the digital installation rather than an artificial approximation of them.

Beyond the Koi Pond: The Rest of the Museum

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The koi pond and Floating Flower Garden get most of the attention online, but they're two rooms among many. Other standing installations include the Infinite Crystal Universe (a mirrored room of shimmering LED light strands you walk directly through) and Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers (a planetarium-scale room where you lie down as digital flowers drift overhead).

In January 2025, the museum opened a major expansion — roughly 1.5 times its previous footprint, 20-plus new works — adding three zones: Athletics Forest (climbing, balancing, and jumping through movement-reactive art), Catching and Collecting Extinct Forest (an app-guided area for "capturing" extinct animals), and Future Park (visitors' own drawings turned into moving digital art). An outdoor Orchid Glass House was added in the same expansion.

In 2024, teamLab Planets was recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-visited museum by a single art group (roughly 2.5 million visitors, April 2023–March 2024) — a title it took over from sibling museum teamLab Borderless.

teamLab Planets vs. teamLab Borderless

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If "teamLab" has come up more than once while planning this trip, that's because there are two separate, unrelated teamLab museums open in Tokyo, and travelers mix them up constantly.

teamLab Planets — this museum — is in Toyosu, barefoot and water-based, and follows one fixed route from start to finish. teamLab Borderless is a different building entirely, in Azabudai Hills near Roppongi; it reopened there in February 2024 after its original Odaiba location closed. Borderless keeps your shoes on, has no fixed route or map — you wander, and the artworks migrate between rooms over time — and current adult tickets run roughly ¥3,600–¥5,600 depending on the date, per current listings.

The two venues aren't within walking distance of each other, and neither substitutes for the other. Planets suits travelers who want a guided experience and don't mind wading through water; Borderless suits those who'd rather wander with dry feet.

Tickets and How to Book

Entry is by advance-purchase, timed ticket only — there's no walk-up admission. Per the official ticket store, standard "Entrance Pass" tickets are priced dynamically by date: adults (18+) start around ¥3,600, though resellers and travel sites report adult prices closer to ¥3,800 on weekdays and ¥4,200 on weekends/holidays for recent dates. Treat these as reference points rather than a fixed price and check the exact cost for your date before booking. Junior high/high school students pay a flat ¥2,800, children 4–12 pay ¥1,500, under-3s enter free, and disability-discounted tickets start around ¥1,800.

Tickets can't be cancelled or refunded, but the official help page confirms you can change your date/time up to three times, as late as two hours ahead; re-entry isn't permitted once you've left. Recent guides suggest booking a week or two ahead for a weekday visit and three to four weeks ahead for weekends or peak periods like cherry blossom season and Golden Week.

Getting There and What's Nearby

Photo: Syced / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

teamLab Planets sits near two different stations on two different lines, and which one you head for matters. Shin-Toyosu Station (Yurikamome, Tokyo's automated waterfront line) is closest, about a 1-minute walk from its north exit, per the museum's official access guide. Toyosu Station (Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line) is roughly a 10-minute walk — useful if subway beats the Yurikamome for you. Shijo-mae Station, also on the Yurikamome, is about 5 minutes away and doubles as the closest station to Toyosu Market. From central Tokyo, the official route is the Yamanote Line to Yurakucho, then the Yurakucho Line to Toyosu, then the Yurikamome to Shin-Toyosu. There's no visitor parking on-site, though weekday ticket holders get a free one-hour voucher at the neighboring LaLaport Toyosu mall.

Toyosu Market, Tokyo's relocated wholesale fish market (moved from the old Tsukiji site in 2018), is an easy pairing — it sits close to Shijo-mae Station, about 5 minutes from the museum, per current travel guides. Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, a dining building next to the market, is frequently recommended for fresh seafood outside the market's early-morning hours; LaLaport Toyosu mall nearby has a broader mix of restaurants. Neither is officially affiliated with teamLab — they're simply within walking distance in the same part of Koto City.

Best Time to Visit and How Long to Stay

The timed-entry system limits crowding somewhat, but demand still isn't even across a day. Recent travel guides and visitor accounts consistently point to weekday mornings at opening, and the last couple of hours before closing, as the quietest windows, while weekends, public holidays, and mid-afternoon slots draw the biggest crowds — a pattern reported across independent travel accounts rather than an official teamLab claim.

Before the 2025 expansion, most guides suggested budgeting 60–90 minutes. With Athletics Forest, Catching and Collecting Extinct Forest, and Future Park now part of the standard visit, current guides more commonly suggest 90 minutes to 2 hours, with some recommending closer to 2–3 hours to properly explore the newer zones.

FAQ

Can I visit with young children? Yes. Under-3s enter free, and per the official help page, children under 13 need an accompanying adult (18+), one per group of up to three kids. Strollers aren't allowed inside (parking with a lockable wire key is available outside), but baby carriers are fine.

Is it accessible for people who can't get their feet wet, or who use a wheelchair? Wheelchair access is available, with staff explaining the accessible route beforehand, per the official help page. A small number of artworks aren't wheelchair-accessible for safety reasons, and the same source mentions "detour routes" for visitors who can't enter the water rooms — though how much of the museum a detour covers isn't clear from available sources, so anyone with specific concerns should contact the museum directly first.

What should I wear? Come prepared to go barefoot — shoes and socks come off at lockers near the entrance. Several rooms have mirrored floors, so the official help page notes visitors in skirts may want the free rental shorts on-site (sizes XS–6L). Wear something you don't mind getting wet below the knee.

Practical Tips

• No time limit is enforced once you're inside with your entry slot — you can stay as long as you want exploring the various rooms, which makes it genuinely worth budgeting more time than you initially think you'll need.

• Bring a change of clothes or at least a towel; wading through water is a core part of several exhibits, not an optional add-on, and you will get wet.

• Photography is generally encouraged and the mirrored, reflective rooms are specifically designed to reward it — but be mindful of other visitors also trying to capture the same unrepeatable moment.

Sources and Verification Notes

teamLab Planets' 2018 opening, real-time rendering, and the 13,000-orchid count were checked against the museum's own descriptions for the original version of this article. This update's new facts — ticket pricing, the date-change/refund policy, what-to-wear guidance, and the stroller/wheelchair details in the FAQ — were checked against teamLab Planets' official ticket store (teamlabplanets.dmm.com) and its Access and Help pages. The Guinness World Records recognition and its April 2023–March 2024 visitor figure were checked against the Guinness World Records site, corroborated by teamLab's own press materials. The January 2025 expansion was checked against teamLab's press release and Blooloop, an immersive-attractions trade publication. Facts about teamLab Borderless were cross-checked across several current travel publications rather than a single official page, which didn't fully load during this research pass.

Two things remain unresolved rather than guessed at: exact adult ticket pricing fluctuates by date under teamLab's dynamic pricing, and reported opening hours vary slightly between sources (8:30 a.m. vs. 9 a.m. start) — confirm both on the official ticket store before booking. Crowd patterns, visit duration, and nearby food picks reflect a synthesis of recent travel guides, not official figures.