teamLab Planets

 It's the moment you've all been waiting for! Blog Entry #4. On the evening of the third night in Tokyo, went went to teamLab Planets in Odaiba. It's a bit hard to describe, but the closest I can come is an interactive art exhibit with other people. Thankfully, a picture is worth a thousand words. And, as a mathematician, that means 10 pictures are worth 10,000 words. And a video is worth... well it depends on the frame rate and length I guess. And resolution maybe? Ok, maybe not a great analogy. Anyway... teamLab Planets!

You put all your stuff in a locker and then take your shoes off. The first room is basically a giant pillow that you walk around on and fall down a bunch, especially if there are other people near you. My understanding is that the idea here was that other people create distortions that can impact your own path. The, you walk through some lukewarm, knee-high(ish) water, which is weird. But, then you walk into this huge room with (probably) thousands of LED-strands that are supposed to simulate a galaxy. You can download an app to interact with the exhibit, which in this case launches patterns of different-colored light depending on your location that permeate the entire exhibit, and with various people doing it the effect is pretty cool. The floor and ceiling are also made of mirrors so it's a pretty trippy experience.  A video that shows what that's like is below.

 The next room had giant balls that were strewn throughout the floor and ceiling, which you would bump out of the way as you make your way across it. Those would then bump int other people or their path, and they would bump them again, and so on, creating a sense of perpetual motion.

 

The next room was my favorite. It was similar to a planetarium in that the walls and ceiling were a huge hemisphere or dome, and you would lay on the floor and watch what I can best describe as a flower storm that traversed the seasons. I took some very cool, very artsy long exposure pictures that came out just as blurry garbage. But the intent was there!

 

And a video!

 

There were 3 other parts of the building, which included an outdoor garden with glass orbs, a series of rooms with screens all along the walls of animals walking or swimming (one part was in the jungle, one part underwater) and plants swaying, and a series of interactive exhibits. Most is hard to explain, the experience was very cool. I have some more videos I can share when we're together if there's interest. After that, we ate some delicious Ramen and called it a night! We also found out that TPU-F does not like dishes with noodles where pasta is not the primary dish. So, for example, a meal like Fettuccine Alfredo is fine because it's primarily a pasta dish. But, dishes with pasta on the side, or pasta incorporated as a secondary ingredient (Ramen or Udon) is not.