I thought this Tokyo museum would be a major tourist trap. It ended up being a highlight of my first trip to Japan.

TeamLab Planets quickly made a name for itself after opening its doors in 2018. It holds the Guinness World Record for the most-visited museum dedicated to a single group or artist, bringing in more than 2.5 million visitors from April 2023 to March 2024.

A popular second location in Tokyo, known as teamLab Borderless, focuses on digital art.

Both museums were launched by teamLab, an international art collective that includes artists, animators, engineers, mathematicians, and architects among its specialists. Together, they work to “explore the relationship between the self and the world,” according to the museum’s website, although global brand director Takashi Kudo said they have an even bigger goal.

“If these exhibitions cannot reach an emotional height, then we have failed,” he told The New York Times in 2024. “We have to reach people’s hearts.”