We have been eyeing teamLab exhibits for a long time. In 2017 we even went to Odaiba on purpose to visit their famous Borderless showing, but were met with a sign saying there were no tickets left. On that same year we did catch a small glimpse of their work at GINZA SIX Garden in Resonating Trees, but it wasn’t nearly as enveloping or exciting.
Since then I’d been wanting to visit a proper exhibition of theirs. When booking this entire trip I came across teamLab’s Botanical Garden located in Nagai Park, Osaka. Luckily we were staying in Osaka for a couple of days, so it was the perfect excuse to have a different afternoon/evening and cross one item off my bucket list.
The exhibition takes place in an actual botanical garden and where I’d say the main attraction is nature itself. Everything that’s been created and placed there by teamLab has the goal to highlight what’s around it. To make us see nature as if it’s the first time. To be in awe with the beauty that surrounds us.
Stepping into the garden felt magical. The sound and the lights gave it an ethereal look. The lights kept changing, making the vegetation change every few seconds and transform into different shapes. Inside the garden itself there were a few different areas with distinct environments and objects.
Our favorite were the massive eggs that were lit up from the inside. There were dozens of these, and once you stepped in it completely wrapped you in this new and soft world that invited you to wander in and explore.
It’s impossible to describe the experience or capture it in photos, so I invite you to visit Lena’s post that has a few videos that do it better than mine.
After leaving the garden in awe and heading towards the train station, we found our way into Jumbo Sohonten where we had a super simple but nice dinner. Jumbo is one of those izakaya franchises you can spot everywhere, but it felt so homely to us.
Drop a word