Hi all
To start off I want to clarify that this is of course entirely opinion based and I don’t want to invalidate the other OPs experience, however it feels wrong of me to not make a counter post after my visit this afternoon while I have dinner.
Firstly – the water smell? It’s chlorine. It’s to ensure you don’t catch any germs or anything else from other visitors. It’s a necessity and the smell goes shortly after you leave – they also provide fresh towels after every wet experience. I’m gonna be real here, it’s a silly complaint, better than hook worms and the rest eh??
Secondly – the flooring is peeling up a bit, however it wasn’t unsafe in any way. It might be a sensory issue for some, however given the nature of the experience one with sensory issues would be best avoiding this altogether.
It was exactly as I expected. It’s a place you don’t need to spend heaps of time at, maybe an hour, two if you’ve got younger people that like to take pics.
Now what I really want to stress and what made the trip less enjoyable for me was the other visitors. Nationality does not seem to matter, everyone was bloody rude as shit to the staff, disobeying the extremely simple rules – don’t touch shit and don’t use your flash. People running through the light room pushing the cables around, hurling balls at other visitors. Every single room had rubbish left in it as we left – masks, food wrappers and drink cans. People were bowling past me multiple times for very little reason at all, kids being let loose and people essentially ignoring advice from staff.
This country is built on respect for their fellow person and it absolutely disgusted me the way some visitors treated them. So as a really sincere ending note please guys do your research on the culture. Treat them how they treat you – respect and courtesy. It’s really not hard. I’m seriously disappointed in how tourists behaved today, please guys do some basic research about how to behave in the country before you visit. We are guests but we should behave appropriately.
All in all I highly recommend the visit. Please please please let’s give this country and the people that live here the respect that they deserve, it seriously hurt my heart to observe today.
20 comments
Like everything else, the experience is almost always ruined by people. Sure, mostly foreigners but some locals as well.
The number of tourists travelling to Japan this year is immense, everything and everywhere will be packed. Be ready for it and accept that some people, not cultures, are just rude or have main character syndrome.
I agree with this when I went last week but I’d also point out a lot of the Japanese were as bad, especially with their selfish blocking of walkways for photos. I’ve found this an issue throughout my trip, I’ve found the Japanese rude a lot of the time compared to when I was last here.
Good to know and thanks for the perspective!! Hell is other people!
I do plan to check it out but maybe we’ll look into some other nearby stuff in case we don’t want to spend a long time there. I feel really bad for the staff. It’s also really surprising in an art museum of all places. Maybe they need to start kicking people out when they touch the art! Imagine if I ran up and touched the Mona Lisa… I’d probably get tasered.
Is there a time one can go to TeamLabs where it is much quieter?
Damn maybe I just had a super good group last week seeing these posts. I loved it and didn’t see any of this behavior. I will say that if you have a good group it’s an easy 8/10 like you can not do it for sure and frankly if you don’t after hearing what some of you have seen I wouldn’t blame you. But for me it was one of those things that continually made me feel something while I was there
I cam say this for TeamLabs. I visited the show and it was good. A first of its kind experience for me, but i was carrying too many bags, with my vegan food and money and everything, and foolishly left one of my bags somewhere and absolutely lost my shit when i realised i dont have that bag. The teamLabs people were extremely courteous and got me my bag back in minimum hassle. Cant say that of any other place. For this alone, I am grateful!
Just came back from my March trip in Japan, and I can say for certain that theres always that one tourist really trying to piss everyone off by not following the rules.
At animejapan 2023, there is an area for cosplay, if you wanna have a picture you should line up. There’s literal signs (mostly japanese, few english lines), saying please follow the rules, ask for permission before taking photos, don’t make others uncomfortable, etc. Then come this one guy, a 30s looking foreigner (40s? he had grey hair), wearing one of those typical thailand tourist shirt. Skips the line, stands beside those currently taking photos and just snaps away. Those lining up near him, gestures him to piss off, and try to block his camera, but he just dances away while taking a few more shots.
Another thing that really piss me off is when, a group of ppl just stand right outside an entrance/exit and chat away. Zero fks given to all the people trying to move pass them.
Common courtesy and simple respect, is really not hard. Some people just really don’t care and act like they own the place.
How long did you wait for the queue ?
I’m going tomorrow and not sure if I’m ready to deal with the amount of people who lack awareness. It’s annoying (as a tourist myself) to deal with the amount of people who come to visit and can’t respect those around them and the country they’re visiting. I’d say it’s a good majority of both tourists and local though … Either way, It just gives us such a crappy rep. I’m not even surprised that some places refuse to serve tourists 🤷🏻♀️
This!!! Thank you OP!! I’ve been to Japan several times and this time, post covid seemed to have by far the worst kinds of tourists. No research into the culture and norms nor care to even learn the basic “arigato gozaimasu”.
I saw tourists touching and yanking on cherry blossom trees when there are signs everywhere!!! Sitting on the steps of shrines…not lining up…talking loudly on trains…men using female only trains…handing cashiers credit card/cash when the tray is right in front of them.
The list goes on…I was truly disappointed by tourists this trip and I don’t know if it’ll get better.
For me, I really enjoyed it, as it was my first time at this type of art installation. Maybe if you’ve done something like this in another big city like NYC or London, this might not seem that impressive but for me it was one of the more memorable parts of my trip.
It was definitely very crowded and this was in November, so before a lot of foreign tourists could show up. It was really hard to take photos without someone else in the shot.
I was there about two weeks ago (also went about 3 years ago as well, I got mixed up between borderless and planets and thought I hadn’t gone to planets.
I was there for a 730 start and was fairly quiet with not many people. As others have mentioned is that it’s people that ruin it. There’s rules in place that are simply not enforced so people just do what they want.
I’d still give it a go but try and book later in the evening during the week for a quieter experience.
Lol you wouldn’t in 100 years get “hook worms”. What someone shitting in that water lmao
I had a pre teen kid nearly knock a woman over cause he was charging into the large rubber balls. His mother just laughed awkwardly. He went on to continue doing it like a hyper little wanker. Loathsome.
It was an absolute highlight for us. Japanese af
When I visited it was very busy but everyone was somewhat disciplined and calm with the exception of Indian tourists.
Just to be clear i’m not saying all indian tourists were bad but there were a few large groups of indian tourists that ruined the experience for everyone.
Same when we went too. The LED light room had the worst behaviour by far. So many perfect le blocking paths taking TikTok videos or endless selfies and walking into the cables where the attendants have clearly asked people not to go. Very disrespectful. It I enjoyed it nonetheless
Lol none of the loud and bad tourists will ever read this subreddit, so no point in lecturing here. Most people who come here looking for advice have some idea on etiquette.
Ppl bitch and complain about everything on this page. Yesterdays post was absolutely ridiculous. I went as part of the first group after it opened and I thought it was great. I had ZERO issues. When we were leaving at 11 we noticed it was jam packed so I can see that being an issue but, honestly, that is to be expected when freakin Kim K was there was last week. Of course everyone and their mom will be there so it’s important to research and prepare or research and skip.
adding on to disrespectful tourists, Not teamlabs but in Shibuya sky. There was a long orderly queue for us to enter the elevator after we shown our tickets. A group of about 8 Russians literally ignored the line, squeezed past everyone and cut to the front. No one said any thing. Staff didn’t seem to notice. Everyone was probably dumbfounded and so shocked at the blatant disrespect, like do lines not exist in Russia?? What the fuck was going thru their brains to make them think it was ok??
I was already next in line and made sure they didn’t get past me. Jesus Christ.