A Visual Extravaganza

I've finally cracked - I used the aircon in my room for the first time yesterday, as the real feel in Tokyo was over 40 degrees celcius - wanting to save energy was overwhelmed by the volumes of liquid I was having to consume just to feel vaguely alive. Having a cool room (well, around 25 degrees) meant I slept like an absolute baby, so I think this might be a consistent trend from now on. The real feels for the rest of the week are into the high 30s, so not as bad as yesterday, but I'm now aware of how comfortable my room can become!

Speaking of hot things, one of the hottest attractions in Tokyo right now is the Mori Digital Art Museum, a collaboration with TeamLab Borderless. This is basically a visual and audio extravaganza developed by one of Tokyo's best museums, and a collective of designers, artists, architects and engineers. This museum only opened a few weeks ago, and has been marketed pretty heavily lately (in fact I've had several people in NZ recommending me to go there).

Weeks ago Claire and I bought tickets for the museum (you have to pre-buy tickets for a specific day) - and a good thing too, as the tickets for July AND all of August are sold out! We made our ways to Odaiba - an artificial island in Tokyo Bay that serves as a big playground basically, full of amusements, rides, shopping and such like - for opening at 10am, though of course being Japan, there were already extensive queues. Nevertheless, the place was incredibly well thought out, and before long we were entering the building.


There are a number of interactive displays, with the lights reacting as you 'touch' the projections, changing colour, disintegrating, or altering direction. Ghostly figures will bow to you in one of the galleries, and a hall of mirrors and LEDs gives you a sense of being in some crystalline, fractal infinity. There is a room with bean bags that has you surrounded by pitch black waves, allowing you to take a moment to sit down and reflect on the sensory overload you are experiencing. One of the displays, for which you are allowed to enter for 90 seconds only, has you in a box of mirrors, with hundreds of coloured lamps suspended - this being one of the main flagship displays. Another has you in a forest of lillipads, with colours and shapes projected upon them. One of the highlights was the cafe, which is in a dark room, walking you past three illuminated drippers of tea, resembling a chemistry lab and a lava lamp. Once you get inside, you are given your choice of matcha tea, and magic happens. The top layer of the matcha is a frothy one, much like a cappuccino or flat white, and a small ball of light is projected onto it. Before your eyes, this ball begins to grow, before blooming into flowers! If you pick up your tea, the ball of flowers, which are now projected onto the table, will start to disintegrate and disappear, but putting your cup down on the table again will cause a new ball of flowers to appear - it is some awesome technology!

As a slight aside, Claire and I were talking yesterday about how many photos to put up of it, for fear of 'spoiling' the experience. However we agreed that the place really has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated, as no amount of marketing fully prepared me for how awesome it was. Accordingly, most of this will become a photo blog, because, as a picture speaks a thousand words, and this place cannot be adequately described without visiting, there isn't much point to me trying!

A hall of mirrors and flowers, never knowing what was space and what was reflection

A ghostly parade of samurai and musicians, proceeding between displays (where they would become part of them)

A chamber of mirrors and lights, like stepping into infinity

Waiting for the lantern room, which seemed to go for infinity as well

A floral tiger - what happens if you pat him?

Like Peter Pan after Wendy fixes him up, my shadow was strongly cast in this particular room

Floor to ceiling projected morning glories

Ghostly bamboo forests cast on the wall

Projected lillipads as far as the eye can see

A moment of reflection surrounded by black waves

Taking a moment to play around with my filter collection, creating stars out of light

A hall of ghostly projections, who would interact with you if you did the right thing

Believe it or not, but the liquid in this device is green tea

Drinking matcha with floral projections

A ball of floral projections on my tea

The Digital Art Museum is something I absolutely recommend, so much so that when my friends Chris and Kerryn visit in September I will go back - after five hours there Claire and I did not see everything, and I have some more photographs I want to try! Anyone who is visiting Japan, definitely check out their website and look at buying tickets before you come, because for the moment they are incredibly popular, rightly so!

Tonight I am off to see the Han Solo movie, which I'm sure will be an entertaining ride if nothing else, and otherwise I am starting the process of sussing out the logistics behind my departure from Komaba Lodge and into my next accommodation - I still am yet to get confirmation of this, but come August 1 I will hopefully know!

So, until next time, stay frosty out there (use that aircon as much as possible), and keep coming back for the next chapter of the adventures of Troy in Tokyo!