Japan 2025, July 22

My timed entry for Teamlab Planets was between 10am and 10:30am. It looked like the entire trip, across two train lines and some walking before, during, and after would take about 45 minutes. I didn't want to risk missing out, so planned to be there close to 10am, meaning I'd have to leave the hotel by about 9am.

That timeline didn't leave a lot remaining for 7am breakfast, some running, and getting ready to leave. The running route I planned by the river was less than a kilometre away and some of that was on roads without traffic, which helped too.

This definitely felt like the hottest day yet while out running in the morning. I ran for about 2.5 kilometres up the Sumida River along a boardwalk section which had a bit of shade at least. When I got to a street crossing I decided to turn back and see what the other direction was like. I went down on the path next to the river instead, in the sun, but eventually hit a dead end before even getting back to my starting point. Turning around and returning to the boardwalk section I was able to go a bit further south, but was about to reach another road and decided to finish up. There was also a pedestrian bridge going across to the other side of the river, so there's plenty more routes to try.

After getting ready to leave it was close to 9am so I was cutting it a bit close for a 10am arrival. I didn't have any problems catching the two trains and was down to my last walking by 9:30am. The problem was there's two station with the same name and so many exits, so it was hard to work out where to go. Thanks to Google Maps with GPS location it was solved easily enough when getting out to the street level, and I just had the last 750 metres to walk.

I got to the Teamlab Planets entrance a bit before 10am but there was already a queue. I figured these were late arrivals for the 9:30 time slot, but people kept rolling in as late as 9:55am. Surely that many people couldn't be leaving it until the last minute, so I went to investigate and the sign was up for both 9:30am and 10:00am entries.

I quickly jumped in a line but with no shade we were baking for at least 10 minutes until finally getting to an undercover section. While in line I realised I'd done all my planning for the day but not emailed it through to my phone. I remembered most of the content, but not the exact order and nearest train stations to each stop. More than 15 minutes went by until I was finally at the front of the line and able to scan my ticket. Next we got some generic introduction that nobody really listened to, and we were told there was four sections to explore in any order.

Most people went to Water since it was the closest, so I went to Forest instead. The other name for this was Athletic Forest and it was like a combination of art, very bright colours, and small fitness games. One had these rubber ball shapes you had to stand on and try to follow the same colours to the end. The balls were quite squishy so it was a bit hard to keep your balance. A similar area had small foam squares instead, which you had to make your way across, with simulated water beneath if you fell off a square. A few other rooms were more artistic than interactive but had some different slopes and surfaces to walk around. I thought this was a good zone, although maybe needed a few more activities.

The next section I went to was Garden. This was just one big room full of plants attached to strings that were going up and down. You had to wait for them to go up to before you could move through, and even then it wasn't clear with path to take. It would have been better if there was a range of flowers instead of all being the same at least.

The third section I went to was Water, where you had to put shoes, socks, and bags into lockers before starting. It started with walking up a slope while water was running down, then they immediately had towels to dry your feet at the top. There was a big room next with all these colour changing lights hanging from the roof, which was a nice effect.

Back walking through water again, this time was a big room containing about shin deep water. The water had images of fish and colourful patterns displayed on them as you walked through. After drying off my feet again it was a room full of big air filled balloons, that you weren't meant to push around though. This had changing room colours too, which was interesting. The final room was just where you could sit down and view some images displayed on the dome roof, such as sunflowers. The water section was definitely the most artistic and clever of those three sections.

The last section was Open Air which wasn't really a section at all, just the outdoor area leading to some food places and the exit. In summary it had some really good ideas, although I just hoped for slightly more content wise. I tried to take my time going through and was finished in around 1.5 hours.

With that adventure over it was back to the train station to try and recount my afternoon activities. I got the train back to Ginza where I'd swapped lines earlier, and had a quick stop of Shake Shack for lunch. Then it was time for bit of local shopping.

My first stop was the Nike Ginza store which had one good shirt, but no medium. After a few minutes I remembered Asian sizes are different, so I would be buying a large instead. I had a closer look at the shirt but it seemed more like a training shirt than a running short, but a good reminder for sizing later.

There was two Asics stores nearby, but I didn't want to go too far in the opposite direction so only went to one. The one I chose was Asics Run Tokyo store, which as the name suggests is focused on their running products. A strange thing I found in the store is you could rent out shoes and clothes for a few dollars, actually a good idea in particular for shoes you're not sure about. I found one good shirt to buy and guessed on a large, but didn't find any good shorts or socks.

Heading back below ground I tried to make my way through Tokyo station. I was very thirsty from being out in the sun for most of the day, and had never gone so long without seeing a convenience store until finally coming across one. 

After a little searching I finally found the character street I was looking for, in the basement level of one of the shopping malls. This was similar to some places in Osaka where they sell a range of different character merchandise, and even had a popup Star Wars store, but with nothing good. There was also a small Pokemon store instead of the larger Pokemon centres, I just got one small plush that I think is named Gengar. My feet were quite sore so I headed straight to Tokyo Skytree station next so I could rest a bit before my 5pm entry for the observation deck.

In the lower levels of Tokyo Skytree I came across a popup Labubu store and was curious so went and had a closer look. There was a line of people but a sign said only lottery winners were being accepted today. There was yet another Pokemon centre here, where I found a good bigger version of Gengar as a complement to my earlier purchase, but maybe too big for my suitcase. I still haven't found any magnets in any of the Pokemon stores.

I had nearly 30 minutes to rest and then went up to the top of Tokyo Skytree. The observation levels had good views showing how large Tokyo city extends in every direction. There's no way Melbourne could come close to that growth without like 10 extra train lines and all of the other infrastructure. The top level was Toy Story themed for some reason, and I found an exclusive magnet at their store before leaving.

After heading back down to the normal gift shop at the exit I found a regular Tokyo magnet too, in the same style as the other set I got in Osaka. Then I was off to pick up some food and drinks for the trip home to the hotel, concluding another long day with two main activities.

A visit to the Imperial Palace east gardens was also on my list for the afternoon, but I was a bit too tired and short on time for that. By the time I'd had some dinner, written up my notes, and just begun planning for tomorrow it was already 8:30pm.

Public transport = 830 yen

Steps = 25,427 with 7.8 kilometres running