teamLab Borderless vs Planets Review — Which is Better?
Last Updated on December 20, 2024 by Kay
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission on any purchases through those links at zero additional cost to you. Whatever I make goes to keeping this website running and I am forever grateful for the support. See my Privacy Policy for more information.
As much as we all would love to have as many memorable experiences as possible when traveling, limited budgets and time make this a little difficult.
So if you’re torn between teamLab Borderless or teamLab Planets when visiting Tokyo in Japan, this article will take an in-depth look into the two and help you decide which one is worth your time and money.
Table of Contents
- Locations and How to Get There
- How to Buy Tickets and Cost
- What to Know Before Visiting teamLab Borderless and Planets
- Which is the Better Experience — Borderless or Planets?
- Which is Better for Kids — Borderless or Planets?
- Which Requires More Time — Borderless or Planets?
- Food and Drinks
- teamLab Planets vs Borderless — Which Is Better?
Locations and How to Get There
teamLab Borderless is located in Roppongi, specifically on the B1 floor of Azabudai Hills. It’s about a four-minute walk from Kamiyacho Station on the Hibiya (Grey) line.
Roppongi is known for Tokyo Tower, luxury shopping, art galleries, and its nightlife, so there is plenty to do before or after visiting teamLab Borderless. This area is also in central Tokyo, so it’s easy to travel to another part of the city such as Shinjuku or Akihabara in under 30 minutes.
teamLab Planets is located in Odaiba and is a mere one-minute walk from Shin-Toyosu Station. There isn’t really anything else around the station but you can take a short train ride to see the Unicorn Gundam or Small Worlds Tokyo.
Odaiba is somewhat far from central Tokyo so it can be costly to get there by train. To help you picture the distance, it takes 40 minutes to get to teamLab Planets from Shinjuku Station and 35 minutes from Akihabara Station.
How to Buy Tickets and Cost
Tickets for both teamLab Borderless and Planets can be purchased on the official teamLab website as well as on Klook (Borderless / Planets). For both, you must purchase tickets in advance. To get your preferred date and time, I recommend purchasing about a month in advance.
The ticket price for Borderless and Planets changes depending on when you’re going. For instance, weekends, holidays, and school vacation periods in Japan are more expensive, as are morning time slots.
Tickets for both Borderless and Planets start at 3600 yen for adults. The highest price is 5400 yen for Borderless and 4800 yen for Planets, making Borderless more expensive depending on when you go. However, ticket prices for kids can be more expensive if you’re visiting teamLab Planets.
For children ages 13 to 17, Borderless has a set ticket price of 2800 yen while for Planets, the price ranges from 2700 to 3000 yen.
Tickets for children ages 4 to 12 are also fixed at 1500 yen for Borderless while Planets starts at 1500 yen and goes up to 2000 yen.
Kids ages three and younger are free for both Borderless and Planets.
What to Know Before Visiting teamLab Borderless and Planets
Both Borderless and Planets have rooms with mirrors on the floor, so if you’re wearing a skirt, make sure you have shorts underneath. You can rent shorts from both if you need them.
Strollers are not allowed inside both museums; however, there is an area to put your stroller. If you have a baby, I recommend you put them in a baby carrier, especially for teamLab Planets.
Be prepared to take your shoes and socks off at teamLab Planets. There’s an area with knee-deep water so you’ll need to roll up your pants, hold up your skirt, or simply rent shorts. Bring a waterproof bag for your smartphone if you’re worried you might drop it.
Which is the Better Experience — Borderless or Planets?
teamLab Borderless
teamLab Borderless is a permanent art museum in Tokyo. It used to be located in Odaiba but moved to Roppongi recently.
This museum is entirely indoors and has no set route or map, meaning you discover and explore different rooms and their interactive art freely. In fact, some of the artwork flows from one room to another, meaning that no two people have the same experience when visiting.
One of the downsides of Borderless is that it can feel like a maze sometimes, and you might end up missing some rooms since there aren’t many signs or a map. However, since you can freely explore the museum, people disperse more easily and sometimes if you’re lucky, there will be no one else in a particular room! This makes Borderless great for capturing fantastic photos.
My daughter and I found Borderless to be quite enjoyable since we could choose which rooms we wanted to visit, and it was fun to “discover” different areas. We also liked following certain artworks, such as a procession of animals, fish, or butterflies, from one room to another.
Another cool part of Borderless is how the artwork responds to people individually. For instance, if you touch the school of fish on the walls, some of the fish will change color. Fish that my daughter touched turned pink and the ones I touched turned light blue.
I especially liked the room where “water” streamed down and bounced off my hand or even head.
Although I enjoyed teamLab Borderless, two drawbacks are that there’s no map, so it’s easy to miss a room accidentally, and you need to download the teamLab app to read explanations about each room and interact with some of the artwork.
teamLab Planets
teamLab Planets is a temporary art museum that will close in 2027.
It has both indoor and outdoor artworks. Unlike Borderless, it has a set route you have to follow, including several areas where you’re immersed in water. This means you have to take off your shoes and socks and place them in a locker. Towels are provided for free after you visit an area with water.
The water in one of the rooms is about 30 centimeters deep, so you’ll need to roll up your pants. If you have a small child, this might be too deep so be prepared to carry them.
I found that teamLab Planets has guests interact with the artwork in a way different from teamLab Borderless. Borderless mainly focuses on projections on walls or rooms with various lights. Planets, however, has you engage your senses, especially touch and sight. You walk through water, over a soft but uneven surface, view dazzling light sculptures, watch projections of falling flowers, look at real flowers, and play with massive eggs that change color.
Maybe I’m dense but I couldn’t quite grasp why Planets has a set route. I liked that I wouldn’t miss anything but this also meant I couldn’t revisit certain rooms. In particular, if I were to visit teamLab Planets again, I would not want to go to any of the rooms with water. Why? I find it gross. Sure, they use chlorine but since the room is dark, you can’t really tell how clean the water is. I kept wondering how much hair and who knows what else is in that water considering how many people visit.
And yes, I do go to public pools, but pools have showers I can use afterward. teamLab Planets does not, so I recommend bringing some sanitizing wipes for your feet afterward.
Note that both Borderless and Planets have a similar room with light projections that change color, which looks like this for Borderless:
And this for Planets:
I found that this particular room was far more crowded in Planets than in Borderless, perhaps because guests had to follow a route rather than explore on their own.
Which is Better for Kids — Borderless or Planets?
My daughter, age five, enjoyed teamLab Borderless more than Planets.
She didn’t like getting wet in Planets and that experience alone made her hesitant to go to Borderless afterward. Thankfully, she really enjoyed Borderless, especially Future Park where she could color an aquatic creature of her choice on a piece of paper and then scan it so it joins an ocean of other marine animals swimming about the walls.
Borderless was also far more interactive, which my daughter enjoyed, and she loved “finding” rooms (she was better at finding rooms than me, sometimes!).
However, there are three new kid-focused areas opening at teamLab Planets on January 22nd, 2025, which might make the trip to Odaiba worth it, especially since it seems like you can freely explore like in Borderless. These new areas consist of an indoor playground (Athletics Park) where kids can interact with the artwork through jumping, sliding, and touch, and Future Park, which looks similar to the one at Borderless:
I showed the video above to my daughter and despite disliking Planets, she said she wants to go to the new area. And it indeed looks very fun for kids! However, I do worry a bit about how crowded the rooms will be and if people might be knocking into each other but I guess only time will tell!
There’s also a new area where guests can catch and release extinct animals using smartphones (Catching and Collecting Extinct Forest — I don’t know why but this feels somewhat dystopian to me):
I kind of wish teamLab placed less of an emphasis on smartphones, especially given how we’re attached at the hip to them in modern society (not to mention having to use data), so it was a little disappointing to hear that you need one for this area.
For more information on visiting these museums with kids, read these:
Which Requires More Time — Borderless or Planets?
My daughter and I spent more than two hours at teamLab Borderless. We could have easily stayed here for longer but we had plans, so unfortunately we had to leave.
It’s easy to spend a lot of time here, especially since the rooms keep changing and there’s so much to discover!
For teamLab Planets, we spent only an hour, making it not worth the cost. However, with the new area opening up at the end of January, expect to spend an additional 30 minutes to an hour here.
Food and Drinks
teamLab Borderless has a room called EN TEA HOUSE where you can enjoy a cup of Japanese tea such as matcha and see a projection of a flower blooming in your cup. One cup of tea costs 600 yen, which I think is very reasonable. (I’m honestly surprised they don’t charge more for it!)
There is no food available at teamLab Borderless.
teamLab Planets has a vegan ramen restaurant outside the entrance called Vegan Ramen UZU Tokyo, which has ramen, desserts, and drinks. The restaurant is dark with white light projections. Note that it is closed until January 21st, 2025.
Children ages six and under cannot enter.
teamLab Planets vs Borderless — Which Is Better?
It might be a matter of personal preference but if you have to choose, I recommend teamLab Borderless over Planets.
I’ve been to teamLab Borderless twice already and I would gladly go again. I like that I don’t have to take off my shoes and socks or walk through water, and it’s easier to take great photos as well since it’s not as dark as many of the rooms in teamLab Planets. Since the artwork keeps moving through the rooms, it’s like a new experience each time you visit. Lastly, Borderless is in a convenient location in Tokyo.
The only reason I would visit teamLab Planets again is to see the new area. I found the whole experience underwhelming in comparison to Borderless and my daughter didn’t like it either. Having to follow a route also meant that I felt a little pressured to hurry along paths and couldn’t take my time in certain places.
However, Borderless might be a little boring for those who are more physical and like exploring places using touch. It might also feel overwhelming since there’s no map and there’s a chance you might miss a room.
teamLab Planets is also temporary and will close in 2027, so it might be worth visiting since you won’t get another chance once it’s gone.