Last Day in Tokyo

On our last full day in Tokyo we revisited the Teamlab Borderless Digital Art Museum. It has moved since we were last here in 2018 and is in their new home in the sparkly new Azabudai Hills area of Tokyo.

The Digital Art Museum is an unparalleled sensory experience and it start as you enter.

Descending the dark blue stairs into the museum sets you up for what’s to come.

Here is a video of one of the installations:

Incredibly disorienting and cool to experience.

Every room you enter is a new visual experience!

The museum does a really good job of timing customer entries and so you never feel crowded.

So cool!

If you go, make sure you buy tickets in advance as every day we were in Tokyo was sold out. You can buy them in advance here.

https://www.teamlab.art/e/borderless-azabudai/

From the digital world we walked to the physical world in Yoyogi Park, which is the main park in central Tokyo. There were rumors of cherry blossoms peeking out in the park and we were close enough to investigate.

Turned out to be true! There was a small stand of cherry trees that had begun to bloom early.

Not the full on display that will happen in a few weeks but still quite beautiful!

Our last sightseeing stop of the day was to be the famous Gotokuji Temple in the suburbs of Tokyo towards Yokohama.

The pagoda was just beautiful. But the real reason we were here was this fellow:

Temple legend states that during the early 17th century, a Japanese lord escaped from being caught in a sudden thunderstorm after being invited inside the temple by a cat that lived there. The cat was later said to bring good fortune, being called “maneki-neko”, or the beckoning cat. Today we know this cat around the world as the Lucky Cat, and this temple had thousands of them!

It was incredible to see so many Lucky Cats!

Never one to miss a merch opportunity, the temple legend says you must buy a Lucky Cat during your visit to bring home and so we did.

All these cats made us thirsty! So we headed to a place called Bar Trench which has been named one of the world’s best bars.

Our experience can confirm that. We had an absolutely super time at Bar Trench and enjoyed our time with Rogerio who is one of the founders. Just look at this cocktail:

They are known for their vast selection of bitters which yield some pretty unique cocktails. If you’re in Tokyo GO.

As this was our last night in Tokyo and we had spent so much of our evening at Bar Trench we decided to see if the pizza scene in Tokyo is as good as they say.

We can also confirm that it is. We went to Pizza Studio Tamaki in central Tokyo which is one of the most beloved pizza joints in Tokyo. The Japanese take their pizza seriously and PST would rival pizza we can get in Chicago.

Tomorrow we return home. It has been so wonderful to continue our exploration of Japan. This is such a special place and if you haven’t been you should make plans.