Seeing an exhibition here begins with taking your shoes off.
Socks too, and trouser legs rolled above the knee — from here on you walk barefoot. The floor is dry at first; then, without quite noticing, you are standing in water, and the water rises to your knees. The works do not hang on a wall waiting for you. They change as you move: you stop, they change; you walk on, they come with you. Further in is a greenhouse where more than thirteen thousand living orchids hang above your head, and as you approach they rise and open a path for you.
So what comes off with the shoes is the role of spectator. You are not standing outside the work looking at it. You are the part of it that is moving.
It is in Toyosu — not Odaiba. teamLab Borderless, which used to be over in Odaiba, moved to Azabudai some time ago; that is a different museum, and the two are easily confused. Here in Toyosu you step off the Yurikamome line at Shin-Toyosu and you have arrived, or you can walk over from Toyosu Market. The same line runs on to Odaiba, so wading barefoot here in the day and going across to look at the bay in the early evening will fit into one day. The run has been announced through to the end of 2027.
It is also crowded — one of the most crowded places in Tokyo — so buy tickets ahead. Opening hours move with the season; check the timetable for your day before you set out. The extension of January 2025 made the grounds considerably larger, adding the Athletics Forest; time set aside on the strength of an older impression tends not to be enough.
You come out with wet feet and your trouser legs still rolled, and you put your shoes back on. What you remember is not what you saw. It is that stretch of ground, and how you walked it, one step at a time.