TEAMLABS TOYOSU || A Playground That Reminds You of the Joys of Nature
Run, jump, climb, and wonder.
These are activities I revisited after a distinctly long time at teamLab Planets TOKYO. A trip to Tokyo is often defined by neon-lit billboards, relentless motion, and the choreographed chaos of Shibuya Crossing. But tucked away in Toyosu, a waterfront district reached by a calm half-hour train ride from Shinjuku, is an experience that gently pulls you out of the city’s pulse and back into your own sense of curiosity.
This is not a museum you quietly observe. It is one you enter barefoot, with your sleeves rolled up and your inner child fully engaged.
Guests are asked to remove their shoes, roll up their pant legs, and wade through water features into this wondrous ocean brimming with colourful fish.
The journey unfolds across three distinct yet interconnected realms: Water, Garden, and Athletic Forest. Together, they form a fluid narrative about movement, nature, and the joy of unlearning adulthood, even if only for an afternoon.
Water: Immersion Without Edges
The Water area is where the experience truly dissolves your sense of separation between self and space. Shoes are removed, pant legs rolled, and suddenly, you are wading through ankle to knee-deep water as digital ecosystems bloom around you. Light, sound, and motion converge in a way that feels both otherworldly and instinctively familiar.
Although you know it’s only a projection, you can’t help but pause in awe and gently rake your fingers through the water.
One room in particular lingers in memory: an expansive ocean projected directly onto the water’s surface, teeming with schools of luminous fish. As visitors move their hands through the water, the projections scatter and regroup, responding in real time. There is no instruction panel telling you what to do. You simply play. And in doing so, you remember how natural it once felt to explore without a goal.
Garden: A Gentle Pause
After the sensory richness of Water, the Garden feels like a soft exhale. Suspended flowers drift above you, slowly rising and falling in an almost meditative rhythm. The mirrored walls multiply colour and form, creating the illusion of an endless botanical dreamscape.
Here, movement slows. Visitors linger, tilt their heads upward, and quietly take in the details. The scent of fresh florals, subtle but present, grounds the experience in something unmistakably real. It is less about interaction and more about presence, a reminder that wonder does not always need spectacle to be felt.
The flowers adjust their height and position to envelop guests with their sweet, fresh scent.
Athletic Forest: Permission to Play
The final section, Athletic Forest, invites you to abandon composure altogether. Climbing structures, shifting floors, and immersive installations encourage full-body engagement. This is not play as performance, but play as exploration. Adults laugh without irony. Strangers cheer each other on. The usual self-consciousness that comes with public spaces fades surprisingly quickly.
What stands out most is how deliberately the space challenges balance, perception, and coordination. It asks you to trust your body again, to move without overthinking, and to rediscover the satisfaction of simply trying.
Choose a colour and hop your way on the same colour to the other side!
Climb, jump, exercise your way through the Athletic Forest.
Children slide down the gentle slope illuminated with whimsical projections.
Lingering a Little Longer
After moving through all three worlds, it feels right to slow down. The on-site café offers a moment to sit in the winter sunlight, coffee in hand, or to refuel with a nourishing lunch bowl while reflecting on what you just experienced.
TeamLabs Toyosu is not about escaping reality. It is about reconnecting with a part of yourself that still knows how to be curious, playful, and fully present. In a city defined by precision and pace, this immersive playground offers something quietly radical: permission to wonder again.
Grab a seat and draw to your heart’s content. After the staff scan your creation, you can watch it come alive on the walls.
Photos by Florence Leung
