In 2018 was the first time I was in Japan, and there are few things I remember as fondly as the TeamLab Borderless experience. And even though the Teamlab Borderless has closed for now (more about that below), when I heard the name TeamLab Planets I knew I had to go.

So I went to the site and got a really beautiful experience. TeamLab focuses on creating artworks using lights, mirrors, and in general, the digital environment to provide an awesome experience. With TeamLab planets you were walking through water, while colorful (digital) fish swam around you, creating rays of color in the water. You could lay on a mirrored floor and watch as a beautiful show of color and flowers engulfed the entire room. You were watching as the art moved in front of you, changing depending on interactions from us the watchers.
There also was a beautiful garden area with plants hanging from the ceiling. Sadly, the area wasn’t as big as the TeamLab Borderless experience I had last time, but here are some pictures of the place, I have much better videos, but you will have to wait to see those until you see me in person. And it’s a given, but I will still say the images and videos don’t stand a chance compared to being there in person.

After visiting TeamLabs planet, I decided to go to the station the other TeamLab was at the last time I was in Japan, as it was only a few stations away. To my surprise, what used to be a busy running mall, a Toyota museum, areas with restaurants, and even a Ferris wheel. It had all been completely closed down, and most had been demolished. Since I didn’t know about this, I asked a person what had happened, as in Denmark you wouldn’t just close a big busy mall down like that. He explained to me the landowner had big plans for the area, but nothing had currently been announced. But everything was shut-down and closed 31. August 2022.
This also explains why the TeamLabs experience from last time wasn’t available at all. The entire building is gone!
That being said they are relocating to another site, and it should open in the Fall of 2023, so I will be able to go then, I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Since I was planning on eating at the mall, that now was closed I needed to find something else to do. Luckily for me, the Japanese guy I had asked didn’t have anything planned so he showed me another mall roughly 10 minutes walk from where we were.
And I know that Japan is famous for its love of anime and manga, but I was very surprised, to see a roughly 5 FLOOR tall robot statue from a popular series called “Gundam”. Not only was it massive, but it also every hour made a 2-minute light-show with a clip from the anime where the robot changes form, and the statue changes form as well with moving parts. It was incredible to see such support and acceptance of the fandom like that, and honestly, it’s way more fun than just having a normal small artwork or nothing at all.

Things have been pretty hectic in class as well. We had two people drop out of class: One told us it was because he got promoted and no longer had the time to study alongside his work. For the other, we never got an official explanation for why the other quit. With us losing 2 in our class, we also were relocated to another slightly smaller classroom.
We also had our mid-term test here last Wednesday. Here we needed to show that we understood the roughly 250 words and 50 kanji we had learned, alongside all the grammar. It was rough, and I spent more hours preparing for this than I think I have done for any school-related thing. I passed but only with a mediocre result, so I have to step up my game, especially with Kanji, or else it will be rough for me as we pick up the phase.