Japan 2025, July 25

I had another early start with my second Teamlab event, this time Borderless starting at 10am again. The venue was in Minato which is south of the Ginza and Tokyo area, but still about 40 minutes from the hotel to the destination by train. I thought I might not make it with much time to spare, but arrived nearly 30 minutes early. They didn't seem that busy as there was no queue forming, so I got in about 15 minutes before my planned time.

This museum was a bit more of an art maze, most rooms had changing images and patterns displaying on them in a rotation. There was also a few special rooms, like the rows of vertical lights similar to Planets, one with cubes, and one with small orbs. It was quite dark and there was no specific route, so it was a bit of a puzzle working out if you'd found every room and avoiding going back to the same places again. There was a large middle room with a small mound that was just displaying art, and all the young kids were just going crazy running and sliding, despite the instructions saying not to do that.

I spent nearly 90 minutes looking around, then left and walked to nearby Tokyo Tower to see it up close. I'd already been to two observation decks in Tokyo, so figured I didn't need a third. It was extremely hot out in the sun today, with the forecasts being over 35 degrees every day.

There was just enough time if I was quick to get a short train to Shimbashi to see the Ghibli Glock at 12pm. The large strange looking clock is always on display, but only a few times a day do all the pieces come alive. It actually started a few minutes before 12pm so lucky I was there a little earlier, with a crowd of about 20 other people.

I was a bit unsure what I wanted to do next and as I had a few possible things in different directions, but nothing too important. Since I was only a couple of stops away from a large Pokemon Centre I had a quick look in there. It was hard to find since you had to go to the 8th floor of one building, then connect to another building which somehow became the 5th floor. The range of products looked similar, and there was quite a large queue, so I didn't stay long. At least it was only about a 15 minute detour.

Next I got back on the same train line to Ueno, heading back in the hotel direction. There's quite a few things in the park like a gallery, a museum, and a zoo. I chose the zoo but had read some mixed reviews about the animal living conditions, so was interested to find out for myself.

However before heading off I found a local Wendy's First Kitchen and made an attempt at an order. They don't have a vegetarian burger at all, so I tried fries, mini pancakes, and an ice cream soda float. The fries were as expected, the pancake sauce had a strange taste, and the soda tasted good but was half full of ice between the soda and the ice cream layers.

Continuing on the zoo, my initial impression was it was rather quiet for a big city zoo, although the range of animals was ok. I had a hard time finding a few animals - the polar bear was finished for the day, and the gorilla and tigers weren't in sight. Some of the animal enclosures were a bit of the small side, but that's probably true with many other zoos.

It is not great to see the animals going around in small circles or not moving a lot though. The lines for the two giant pandas was 20-30 minutes so I didn't wait for that, but did see the red pandas instead. Overall I guess I wasn't horrified, but improvements could be made for sure. For example, I don't know if penguins are supposed to be outdoors, even with access to water, in the middle of a Japan summer.

I didn't feel like making any more trips for the day in the heat, so headed back to the hotel for a late afternoon finish.

Public transport = 921 yen

Steps = 23,775 with 8.35 kilometres running