TeamLab Borderless Review: 4 Important Things to Know

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The famed (at least to some) TeamLab Borderless in Tokyo, Japan reopened early 2024 – and ya girl managed to score tickets!! Literally one week after it opened, I just so happened to be visiting Japan (again – lol) and scored tickets for the morning on a weekday! I had been to TeamLab Planets a few months before, so I was excited to see how Borderless would compare. So without further ado, here’s my full TeamLab Borderless review!

Logistics

Actually, I lied, there’s a few more ado’s before we get into the TeamLab Borderless review. Like…yanno, all the important stuff to know before your visit! Liiike how to get there.

Thankfully, that’s the easiest part. Google Maps works really well in Japan, so you can just type TeamLab Borderless or the officially full name “teamLab Borderless: MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM” into Google Maps and it’ll show you where it’s at and how to get there.

Like literally, Google Maps will tell you the closest station, what time the trains arrives, where to exit the station, everything! If you wanna know more about using the public transit in Japan, I’ll write a blog post up on it soon!

price	Adults (ages 18+) : JPY 3,800+ (~$25+ USD) Visitors with disabilities : JPY 1,900 (~$13 USD) Youth (ages 13-17) : JPY 2,800 (~$19 USD) Children (ages 4-12) : JPY 1,500 (~$10 USD) Babies (ages 3 and under) : free *Flexible Pass (all ticketed ages): JPY 12,000+ (~$79+ USD)
opening hours	9:00 – 21:00 (9pm) * Closed at 5:00 p.m. on Jan 28, Feb 18. * Last entry is one hour before the museum closing time. * EN TEA HOUSE opens 1 hour after the museum opening time (10am).
location	Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza B B1 5-9, Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Map of Azabudai Hills

As you can see, lots of varying ticket prices depending on your age or mobility. Though, if you’re traveling in Japan with kids, it’s nice to have a somewhat lower price for the little ones. When you buy a ticket, you are also locking in a specific time and date for your visit – you cannot arrive outside of your ticket window.

Depending on availability/how busy the date, adult prices may fluctuate a bit by 1000-2000 yen (the equivalent of a few USD). The cheapest ticket prices seem to be Monday through Friday as long as you book about two to three weeks in advance. Week-of tickets and weekend tickets are, understandably, more expensive and will also be a bit more crowded.

I visited in the morning on a Monday and it wasn’t too bad at all. Not empty, of course, but easy to snap a few photos and not have the longest lines for the Sketch Ocean or cafe portions (more on that later).

If you’re not keen on booking a specific time, especially if you’re a traveler who likes to go with the flow, you can buy the more expensive “Flexibility Pass” ticket that allows you visit still on a specific date, but there are no restrictions on the time of entry. You can literally arrive whenever, though please not that the last entry is one hour before closing time. Flexibility Pass tickets are also subject to dynamic pricing like the adult tickets, and the price is the same regardless of visitor age.

Although it’s a little more expensive than I could justify, I don’t remember having the Flexibility Pass option when I visited, but thought I would include it anyway in this TeamLab Borderless review.

Location wise, TeamLab Borderless is about a 10 minute walk from the subway station. Since I visited in late February, some of the earlier sakura trees were starting to blossom so it was a lovely walk. It is located in Azabudai Hills, a luxury (at least it looks like it is) business park. There were a good amount of working professionals around, mostly on their way to work, but they didn’t seem to mind all us tourists haha.

Accessibility Notes

For Disabled travelers, tickets for visitors with disabilities are available for holders of a disability certificate and up to one accompanying person. One ticket per person is required for admission.

I can’t give a complete TeamLab Borderless review from a disabled perspective, but I tried to take note of what I could. It seemed about 90% accessible to those with mobility aids like wheelchairs or walkers, the exception being a hill in the corner of one of the areas – and it’s mostly a photo spot, you can still enjoy the area without being on the hill.

All of the “rooms” in TeamLab Borderless were heavily visual, though there is an accompanying soundtrack with one exhibit very sound forward. While the lights throughout were not “flashing,” there are still a lot of moving lights and pictures and visual stimuli, so just keep that in mind if you have a photosensitivity. I did see that one room in particular did have a notice sign for being potentially photo-triggering, so that was reassuring.

For Deaf and HOH visitors, I would say TeamLab Borderless is more on the visual side and I think is still a very fulfilling attraction on that in. For my blind and low vision friends, again it is more visually immersive so TeamLab Planets (another attraction) miiight be more a fulfilling option (it’s more immersive in the other senses), but the call is yours! If you are disabled and visited TeamLab Borderless, let me know your thoughts!

TeamLab Borderless Review

Now that we got the basics outta da way, let’s get into the meat of this TeamLab Borderless review!

Not to keep repeating myself, but it was my first time at the newly reopened TeamLab Borderless, but I had visited their other museum TeamLab Planets a few months prior so I knew (roughly) what to expect. The signage leading to Borderless was very clear and apparent, so it was easier to find. Also since it is within a building, if you buy one of the opening hour tickets, you don’t have to wait outside like at TeamLab Planets!

We checked in with our QR code tickets with pretty much zero wait. There are free lockers and stroller storage for use.

Then as soon as you step inside…you are immersed. If I had to describe TeamLab Borderless in words, then it would be like walking through a lava lamp. While each of the “rooms” have a theme and look to them, the borders of each room are not defined and bleed into each other.

Hence the name: Borderless.

You’ll notice a running motif (literally) through the rooms that will follow throughout the visit. The rooms are also fairly large, so it didn’t feel crowded which was my main concern. Since there is not really a structure to the museum and you just flow through the different rooms at your leisure, it did make it challenging to note which direction you had already gone through or if you had missed any paths. It wasn’t really an issue for me, but something to take note of for this TeamLab Borderless review.

Another TeamLab Borderless review I jotted down is that the relaxed and undefined layout of the museum can make you lose track of time fairly easily. I spent a whole THREE HOURS at Borderless, taking my time to engage in all the rooms and enjoy the experience. Honestly, it was kind of nice to get “lost” in the exhibit and just take in all of the visual stimuli, buuut if you’re on a time crunch you may feel like you might have missed something if you have to rush through.

They also have a small merch store, though I didn’t pick anything up.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, especially the tea room (more on that later). I wanted this TeamLab Borderless review to stand on its own, but if you are wondering the differences between Borderless and Planets, I’ll have a separate TeamLabs Planets or Borderless post comparing the two directly.

Tips for Your Visit

So that was of course my experience and first impressions of TeamLab Borderless. Yours might vary depending on how many people you travel with, what time of day you go, which day of the week you go, etc. Or even your level of interest in immersive art museums. These are the things that I experienced during my visit and some advice that I would suggest to help make your trip a little smoother.

That said, as with anything, your experience is your experience. Do what feels right for you and take this TeamLab Borderless review with a grain of salt. Well…maybe a little more than a grain because there’s some solid advice, but you know what I mean.

Tip 1: Visit Early

While TeamLab Planets ight have pros and cons for visiting early vs visiting later, my recommendation and first tip for this TeamLab Borderless review is to visit early. The earlier the better in fact. The museum opens at 9:00am and out ticket was for 10:30am. So it wasn’t at rope drop, but still in the beginning stages of the day. The crowds weren’t too bad and the lines for things like the tea room and the Sketch Ocean exhibit weren’t too long.

That said, 9:00am is right at the tail-end of the morning commuter traffic. Depending on where your Tokyo hotel or lodging is, you might want to buffer in a little extra time for morning time slots in case you miss a train because it is too crowded with commuters.

Tip 2: Go to the Sketch Ocean First

Speaking of early, regardless of what time slot you get, you should prioritize hitting the “Sketch Ocean” exhibit first. TRUST ME.

This exhibit allows you to create your own fish and bring it to life to swim in the room’s ocean. It takes some time to doodle and there’s limited seating space, so after the first hour or so there is usually a line. When I visited, I didn’t know anything about the different rooms and hadn’t looked up any TeamLab Borderless reviews, so I leisurely made my way through and eventually arrived at Sketch Ocean. There was a line almost out of the room.

That said, it moves quicker than you might expect, I waited maybe twenty minutes or so, but that’s a long time to stand still, especially if you have children.

So with that in mind, go to Sketch Ocean FIRST to maximize your time.

Tip 3: Go to the Tea Room Second

For the same reason, my third tip in my TeamLab Borderless review is to visit the tea room second! The tea room has a set number of seats, so as the day goes on, the line to enjoy the experience will get longer. Why waste unnecessary time in line when you could be getting visual stimuli??

The tea room opens an hour after the museum, so if you get an opening/near-opening timed ticket, you’ll have time to visit the Sketch Ocean exhibit first, maybe do a bit of meandering, and then pop over to the tea room before it gets busy. Even if you don’t have a ticket near the opening times, I would still recommend heading to Sketch Ocean before the tea room.

Prices for a tea (which include cold brew green tea, barley lattes, roasted chamomile, and lemongrass lattes) were 600 yen (~$4 USD). Everyone seated in the tea room must order a tea. Blossoming flowers are projected atop your tea, with visual effects when you move your cup. It’s pretty cute.

Tip 4: Allow Yourself to Get Lost

This is probably the hardest aspect for some people, myself included, but to fully enjoy this museum, you really have to steep yourself in it. The light displays change and shift, so just going through each room once won’t show you the whole picture. As much as the phrase is overused in travel, you should really allow yourself to get lost.

If you are traveling with others (aside kids, for safety reasons), sure go through it once with them but then branch off and explore the museum solo. Do all that inner reflection stuff while you watch the visuals dance across the rooms. That said, if you do split up, make sure to set a time to regroup!

Conclusion

And that pretty much concludes my TeamLab Borderless review! What do you think? Does it sound like an attraction that you would like to visit when you’re in Tokyo, Japan? There’s also a few in other countries around the world, and now that I’ve been to two, I’d love to experience the rest!

If you’ve visited, let me know in the comments if I missed anything or if there’s anything you’d add to this TeamLab Borderless review!

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