The Japan Game Studio Tour seems to have successfully become an annual event. While there weren't any massive changes to the itinerary this time around, there was still quite a lot of planning involved over the past few months. As before, I'll be glossing over things I've covered the previous couple of years and I can't say too much about the game studio visits themselves.

This year we were originally planning a family trip in Japan (and possibly China) after the tour ended. Unfortunately, it ended up falling through for a few reasons. Next year, however, is looking pretty certain. But anyway, like last year I'll be heading home the day after the tour ends. It's a little disappointing, since I had been looking forward to both the family trip and also to having a few extra free days between the tour and my family's arrival, but it is what it is and we've got some fun stuff planned back home.

I got another direct flight this year, though this time I flew United. It was fine, but I think the ANA flight I was on last year had better food and entertainment. Unfortunately, while the flight went smoothly enough, immigration and customs were packed and it took me a couple of hours to get out of the airport and on the train to Asakusa. Once there, I quickly checked into my hotel and then hurried off to the Tokyo Sky Tree.

Well, more specifically, the Kirby Cafe in the Sky Tree mall. I've been wanting to go there for years, but had never been able to. It's so popular that reservations are pretty much always required and they also tend to get booked within minutes of going live so getting one requires good timing and a bit of luck. However, I recently noticed that, due to last minute cancellations, they occasionally get slots opening up within a few hours to a couple of days ahead of time so my plan for this year was to keep an eye on the availability page and, if I saw something suitable, grab it. That plan worked better than I hoped. The cafe is very clearly Kirby themed, but both the décor and music are sort of a classier, slightly subdued take on it. The food, however, really brings the theme front and center. It's not just for looks, it tastes pretty good as well, though naturally the visuals are the main appeal. Well, that and the special souvenirs you get with some of the menu items. After you finish eating, there's also an exclusive store which, while a lot smaller than the main Kirby Cafe store in the Sky Tree mall (which you can visit without eating at the cafe), has some unique items you can't get elsewhere.

By the time I finished it was getting pretty late so, after pausing to watch one of the Sky Tree's many stair light shows, I started walking back to Asakusa. I could have saved myself 10 or 15 minutes and taken the subway, but then I would have missed out on the views and on spotting this dashi (a Japanese soup stock) vending machine.

The museum is primarily aimed at foreign tourists, with English language guided tours running throughout the day. You start out with a samurai photo shoot. A little corny, but kind of fun. Then the guide gives an overview of samurai history and culture while you look at the museum's collection of antique weapons and armor. It's a rather abbreviated version but our guide hit all the main points and was pretty entertaining. After that was a shorter presentation about ninja, and then everyone got to take a few turns throwing shuriken (throwing stars) at targets to wrap things up. The entire experience takes about an hour and is a bit on the expensive side for a Japanese museum (though not too bad by US standards), but it's fun and educational. I'd say it's especially good for families and those not too familiar with the history of samurai and ninja. But if you want more in-depth information, or just want to look at antique weapons and armor, there are better (and cheaper) museums for that.

I still had a little time after the museum so I took a quick look in the Asakusa Underground. It's a small underground shopping area near Asakusa Station. Underground shopping areas are pretty common in Japan these days but the one in Asakusa was the very first. Historical significance aside, it's not very large, and a bit run down, but it's kind of neat to look around. It's also become something of a popular photo spot for both tourists and locals. As for what's down there, mostly bars, though there's a few other random stores and restaurants.

After that it was time to meet the rep from the travel agency and go over things. Then we got lunch and, soon after, split up to meet the arriving students. Nothing too exciting there, though this year I met the group of students who got to take a chartered bus to the hotel instead of the train. I don't normally ride buses in Tokyo, so that was a kind of fun change of pace. The day wrapped up with a welcome dinner (hot pot), and that was that. Here's hoping everything goes well this year.

Oh, and keeping the theme of unusual vending machines, he's one I spotted not far from my hotel.

After that, a lot of the students went back to the hotel to rest, but I gave the ones who still had some energy a quick tour of Asakusa to introduce the shopping arcade, Sensoji Temple, and the like. Then, after getting beef katsu, I went with the other professor to a meetup of indie game developers. That was interesting, though I was still a bit sleep deprived so I had to duck out after a while to get some rest.

I still had some time to kill before the meetup after I finished lunch and the restaurant was near the Tenku Planetarium so I decided to catch a show. Now that I think about it, this was the first time I've been to an actual planetarium since I was a kid. Tenku has several different shows running throughout the day. Due to the timing, the one I watched was Italian Starry Sky Walk, which showed what the view of the stars is like from several locations in Italy, interspersed with videos of Italian cities and countryside and a little bit about Greek and Roman mythology being the basis of the names of various planets and constellations. I watched in Japanese, though I believe English audio guides were available (probably should have gotten one since I never learned many Japanese astronomical terms). It was fun and I have the say, the planetarium projectors do a really amazing job of recreating a star filled sky, the difference between when it was running and when the movie projector was running (for the videos of Italy and such) was rather striking.

The rest of the day was spent in Akihabara. Due to the limited time, I mainly focused on checking out my favorites stores rather than random browsing. While it wasn't a huge shopping day for me, I did pick up a few things that I had been wanting. I also spotted a place selling magikarp taiyaki. I thought that was rather clever, though the taiyaki itself was kind of so-so. Of course, being in Akihabara, I couldn't resist visiting the food court in Yodobashi Camera. While I had a really hard time choosing, I eventually settled on an okonomiyaki restaurant, which was very good. On a side note, while I didn't eat it, one restaurant had actual kangaroo steak. Certainly not something I expected to see...

I could have taken the train back after dinner but since it wasn't especially late I decided to walk instead. It made for a pleasant way to end the day and reminded my how much I like the Sumida River Walk.

Afterwards, I did have a little time before sunset to do some things back in Shibuya. My main priority was visiting the new Square Enix store but I also ended up at Modi (one of the area's many malls). When doing the walking tour earlier, I had spotted a sign there for a Shaun the Sheep exhibition. My sons are both huge fans, so I decided to check it out in their place. I didn't spend too much time there, but it was fun to look at some of the sets and production models from the show. Afterwards, I had just enough time to stop at Yodobashi Camera and grab dinner before sunset. Though, since there's no daylight savings time in Japan, it still wasn't that late so I once again walked back to my hotel along the Sumida River path.

I've mentioned before that I really like the walking path alongside the Sumida River here in Tokyo. In the past, I've gone down to the south end where the river meets the bay. I'd walked a bit north as well but I kept wondering just how far the path went. So today, I sent out to see. The path mostly follows the river, though there are some places it diverges slightly or adds a second level running through a park or on the edge of town. While I mostly tried to stick to the main path, I did occasionally take a quick detour to see a shrine or the like. The river, and the path, continue through many different types of areas including residential and industrial, some of which are more scenic than others. There was even a little amusement park. The path was mostly unbroken aside from a few little gaps due to docks and the like, but there were a couple of spots where tall walls blocked the view of the river and a couple of others where I had to take 10 - 15 minute detours through some quiet residential areas. But the main path always started up again sooner or later. Eventually, I actually reached the end, of the river at least. The Sumida River is formed from a combination of the Shingashi River and an offshoot of the larger Arakawa River. The point is marked by a large watergate. Actually, both the Shingashi and Arakawa Rivers have their own set of paths so I could have kept going but at that point, I'd been walking for around 6 hours and 20 miles so it was a good time to stop. While I would say the stretch near Asakusa is one of the more scenic parts, it was a pleasant and peaceful walk all the way.

I still had plenty of time before sunset so I decided to fill it with a couple of museums that had been sitting on my list. First up, the Art Aquarium in Ginza. Much like the Ga Kyo aquarium in Odaiba that I visited last year, the Art Aquarium is a cross between an aquarium and an art gallery. Most of the fish were different varieties of gold fish but the tanks, lighting, and decorations combine to create a rather unique experience. While a little expensive, I'd say it's worth a visit. As a note, while it's not huge the Art Aquarium is a bit bigger than Ga Kyo but, while they share a concept, their arrangements are different enough that it doesn't hurt to see both.

There was time for one more museum and, given how I had spent much of the day, the Sumida Hokusai Museum seemed like an appropriate choice. It's dedicated to the works of Katsushika Hokusai, Japan's most famous and influential ukiyo-e (wood block print) artist. He's most well known for his Thirty-Six View of Mt Fuji series (which includes The Great Wave Off Kanagawa). I knew a bit about Hokusai before going to the museum but I hadn't realized just how many paintings he had done or how varied his subjects were (he even did a series on the Sumida River, which I kind of feel like I should get now). It was interesting, and I learned a lot about both him and the ukiyo-e process in general. Unfortunately, most parts of the museum didn't allow pictures, so I don't have much to show in that regard.

After finishing there, I didn't really have anything else to do so I killed a little bit of time until sunset, got dinner, and headed back to the hotel for a much deserved rest.

After meeting back up with the students, we headed to Odaiba. First stop was, of course, Diver City since a lot of them wanted to see the Gundam. And, since I was there, I walked around a bit before heading to Decks to visit the retro Japan floor. While the entire area is decorated like Japan from the 50's or so they recently added an entire retro museum as well. You have to pay for admission, but it takes things a step further with full recreations of Showa era streets, shops, and the like. It's great for photos, but you can also use it as an opportunity to touch and learn about things from that time. For example, you can play the records in the music store or mess around with some old toys in a recreated living room. I feel it's a rather neat addition to the area.

As it turned out, we just happened to go to Odaiba on the same day they were doing a big fireworks show. While that meant bigger crowds and some closed walkways, it also meant a chance to see the fireworks. With a bit of effort, I managed to get a spot near the bay to wait for the show. While I ended up with a great view of the fireworks, there was a tree blocking my view of the laser / drone portion of the show, which meant that there were often some long waits between rounds of fireworks. That was a bit annoying, but it was still a very good show and they had some neat color changing fireworks that I hadn't seen before.

By the time the fireworks ended it was getting late so I grabbed a quick meal back in Diver City (to get away from the fireworks crowd) then headed back to the hotel.

Fortunately, we were able to get everyone checked out and on to the shinkansen without any major issues and we got some nice views of Mt Fuji during the ride. We did have a bit of trouble making our way to the hotel after reaching Osaka due to a very inconvenient street layout, but we did get there eventually and I was able to find a much better way to go in the future.

After everyone was settled in, I lead a group over to Den Den Town for some shopping. I didn't want to stay there too late, so I only hit a few favorite stores but I still managed to find some rare CDs. While Den Den Town isn't huge, it seems like I find something cool every time I come. After that, it was off to Dotonburi for dinner (sushi, finally). Then, since I had spent so much time sitting, I decided to walk all the way back to the hotel. It's no Sumida River walk, but Osaka at night is pretty.

Finally, after a bit of a walk, we caught a train down to Fushimi-Inari shrine. As in the past, a smaller sub-set of students went with me on the full tori gate hike. We made good time and got a nice view of Kyoto along the way. Once the hiking was over, I helped the students get on a train back to Osaka but I hung out in Kyoto a bit longer so I could visit the Starbucks and Tea Cafe. I really wish there were more of those around (it's not the only one, but they are few and far between). Then, to wrap up the day, I couldn't resist going back to Dotonburi to get some kushikatsu, which I missed out on last year. Though I still couldn't find the kushikatsu restaurant I used to go to in the past, which was disappointing.

Anyway, it was a long but pleasant day and I think I'm really getting the whole "tour guide" thing down for these walking tours, which is nice. Though it does give me less opportunity to take photos...

Anyway, I still did have a bit of time to kill so after checking out a couple of shops, I decided to try one of the big non-Mario related rides that I hadn't gotten to before, Jurassic Park's Flying Dinosaur. It's a flying coaster, which means you're hanging from your back like you're flying (or being carried by a flying dinosaur, I suppose). Like all rollercoasters, they warn you to take off any loose items, empty your pockets, and all that. Usually though, the idea is that if you don't and you lose something, that's your bad. On the Flying Dinosaur though, they take it really seriously. Everyone is given a locker and they even run your through a metal detector afterwards and make you turn out your pockets to ensure that you're not carrying anything. Overkill? Maybe. But it's worth it. The ride is fairly long, fun, and offers some great views of the park. Though I should note that it also featured some of the strongest g-forces I've ever experienced so it may be too intense for some.

After I finished, it was almost time to head into Super Nintendo World so I made my way over. But my main goal was the newly opened Donkey Kong Country area. It's an expansion of sorts inspired by the Donkey Kong Country games. I started out by exploring a bit. Much like the games, there's some hidden letters and puzzle pieces to find. There's also one new mini-game (a rhythm drumming one). You don't win a key like you do with the Mario ones, but I enjoyed it. Once I was done playing around, I got in line for the main attraction, the Minecart Madness ride. Being new, it naturally had the longest line in the park but I've seen longer, and the single rider line knocked it down to a reasonable level (though it also unfortunately bypassed a couple of interactive elements). The ride itself was a mild rollercoaster (fairly fast and bumpy, but no loops or anything too intense). Nothing unique like the Mario Kart ride, but quite a lot of fun.

After that, I played around in Donkey Kong Country for a little longer to collect some stamps on my app before going back to the main part of Super Nintendo World to ride Mario Kart, play some mini-games, earn more stamps, and the like. Since I had been able to get in fairly early, and the lines generally weren't too bad, I actually ended up leaving the area a few hours before the park closed so I could check out some other things I hadn't done before. I tried a rather unassuming space ride which turned out to be a lot better than I expected. Kind of like Disney's Space Mountain, it's an indoor rollercoaster in dark star field. I also checked out a couple of this year's anime collabs, 4D shows based on Detective Conan (aka Case Closed) and Doraemon. Both were kinda corny but entertaining. And that wrapped up another fun visit to Universal Japan. There's still a few rides I haven't tried, and plenty more stamps to earn in Super Nintendo World, so I've got things to look forward to if I come back next year.

Since I'd already visited the castle a few times in the past, I didn't spend too much time inside so I had a bit of time to kill before the meetup and decided to walk around. First off, I went to the nearby Miraiza Building. My main intent was to get some food but I also decided to check out the Kaiyodo Figure Museum in the basement. Kaiyodo is a major manufacturer of figurines and has been for a long time. The museum has a bit about their history, but it's mostly a showcase of lots and lots of different figurines. That said, it was interesting to see just how diverse their catalogue is. Mecha, anime, American super heroes, kaiju, fairy tales, realistic animals, Japanese religious statues... They really do a bit of everything. I still had time, so I also tried visiting Nishinomaru Garden, on the west side of the castle grounds. Honestly, outside of cherry blossom season, there really isn't much to see. Though, on the plus side, admission is only 200 Yen and you get some good views of the castle.

Our second stop of the day was a studio visit at CyberConnect2, which went very well. If I was going to apply to one of the studios that we visit on these tours, they would probably be my top choice.

After that, the students were free for the rest of the day. I was planning to make my way to Dotonburi but decided to swing by the Osaka Pokémon Cafe on the way and see if there was any chance I could get in (like the Kirby Cafe, it uses an advance reservation system and they tend to get booked within seconds). There are some other neat stores in the same building and I especially liked how the Lego Store had multiple Osaka themed builds. Anyway, unlike the Kirby Cafe, the Pokémon Cafe seems less likely to post cancellations on their web site. Instead, they have a line you can wait in for cancellations or no shows. Since the next entry time wasn't too far off, I decided to give it a shot and I made it in (along with a dozen or so others). The Pokémon Cafe doesn't just seat people whenever, the day is divided into ninety minute periods (with people being seated in a couple of groups during the first 30 minutes or so), with the entire place being cleared out for little while between each time. Decorations aren't quite as subtle as the Kirby Cafe, but they're not totally in your face either. Of course, the big draw is the themed food and drinks, though some almost seems too cute to eat. You can also get lattes with foam art of literally any single Pokémon. There's naturally also the option to get exclusive merchandise, both with your meal and afterwards in the store (as a note, it looks like you can only shop in the store if you eat in the cafe first). You're also encouraged to stay for the entire time, even if you've finished eating, to watch the pikachu show. All in all, I had fun. I'd rate the food at the Kirby Cafe a bit higher but with either one you're going for the experience and theme, not for amazing food, and it did a good job there. Certainly worth a visit if you're a fan.

Before I talk about the Expo itself, I do want to mention its web site. Naturally, you use the web site to buy tickets but a lot of the pavilions also require advance reservations. Said reservations are done via a lottery system, which is an ok method I guess. Or would be if the web site wasn't so terrible. See, Japan actually has a bit of a reputation for lacking good web designers. Unfortunately, the Expo sight does a great job proving that. Even if you can ignore the somewhat confusing organization and layout, the functionality itself is terrible. First off, every time you log in to your account, they need to send you a one time password to confirm. Every single time, on top of your regular password, and it's not optional. I mean, I use two factor authentication on important financial sites and things like that, but I don't think anyone is going to be trying to steal my Expo login. But that's a minor annoyance. A much bigger problem is that the site is in rather desperate need of more servers. Almost any time I try to do anything on it, I'm dropped into a virtual queue and stuck waiting for anywhere between a couple minutes and half a hour before I can do what I want. It's one thing if a site gets overwhelmed during a brief one time event (like the Switch 2 pre-order launch). It's another thing when it's happening every single day for weeks (and presumably months since the Expo is running until sometime in October). Seriously, buy some additional servers and/or bandwidth. Anyway, once you're finally in and ready to try and enter the lottery for pavilion reservations, there's no way to view of a list of which pavilions actually accept lottery reservations (some do, some don't). You have to search for each pavilion by name, which requires you to actually known what the pavilions are and what their names are, spell said names correctly when typing them in the search box, and all that. You could cross-reference with the complete list of pavilions (in another tab, since it won't display when searching), but that's huge and doesn't list which ones use the reservation system. Plus, the listings also don't say anything about what you actually get to do if you go inside the pavilion so how are you supposed to know which are worth visiting in the first place? And then, when you finally find one and try to enter the lottery, there's a decent chance that it'll fail due to too much traffic and knock you back into the virtual queue so you can start the entire process over again. On the bright site, there is an app...but it's not much better. You can't view your ticket, enter the lottery, or view your reservations in it (it just opens a link to the web site if you try). It does have a list of daily events...with no good ways to sort it. At least the map is somewhat useful...albeit extremely laggy. Honestly, with all the money and effort that have gone into the Expo, they really dropped the ball on web and app design.

Anyway... A while back I did manage to use the terrible web site to enter the lottery for a few random pavilions (since it was too hard to figure out which ones would really be worth visiting). However, I only won a reservation for one of them so most of my day was open. The Expo uses timed entry tickets and they seemed to be moving people through pretty quickly all in all, but it still took me around 45 minutes to get through the line. I would assume it's a bit better on weekdays. Once you're inside, the Expo is divided into half a dozen zones, most of which are surrounded by the massive Grand Ring, a raised walkway. That seemed like a good place to start, so I climbed up and walked the entire way around to scope out the Expo and get some nice views.

On a side note, Pokemon Go had a bit of a collaboration going (possible due to Pokemon Go Fest also being held in Osaka). There were some statues scattered around the Expo for AR photos and a virtual stamp rally to complete for a special pikachu. Actually, the Expo had a regular non-Pokemon related stamp rally as well, though it appeared that a lot of the stamps were inside the pavilions so it would probably take quite a lot of visits to complete the whole book. Alternately, you could eschew the physical book and get your stamps as NFTs instead. Yeah... I'm assuming they planned that out way in advance, before everyone realized how stupid NFTs are, and didn't feel like dropping it.

Moving on... After going all the way around the ring, I went down to the ground level and started exploring. That mainly meant looking at the outside of the various pavilions, though not all of them actually used the whole advance reservation lottery system so there were some I could of have just waited in line for. That said, I wasn't especially keen to spend 1 - 2 hours waiting in line to enter a pavilion when I still had no way to tell what was actually inside. The majority of the pavilions belonged to one country or another though there were also some dedicated to certain themes or companies, and even a few that acted entirely as art installations. But even without entering the pavilions, there were some art displays and other attractions you could see while just walking around. There were performances as well like dancing, comedy shows, and music (actually that guy was just visiting the expo, the piano was open for anyone to play). Lots of food too. There were some food courts and small restaurants, and some of the pavilions were selling food outside as well so I got to try some interesting things like a sort of Philippines corn bread with coconut and salted duck egg and a pizza where the dough was made of rice and koji. So I walked around, watched some performances, snacked, and checked out the many interesting pavilion designs. Not to mention the Gundam (sadly, I couldn't get a reservation to go inside the pavilion). Even the restrooms and rest areas had cool designs. The one thing that was not well designed was the Expo mascot. Yes, I know Japan likes their cute mascots but I don't really think he's cute, cool, or much of anything other than weird and ugly. But hey, if that's your type of thing, there was no lack of merchandise for sale.

My one reservation was for the Kansai Pavilion. Kansai is the region of Japan where Osaka and Kyoto are and the pavilion was divided into sections for each of the prefectures in the area, all of which had some sort of presentation or activity, though they varied wildly in terms of content and quality. Annoyingly, the more interesting ones were pretty busy so even after getting into the pavilion, you had to wait in more lines to see the different displays, some of which frequently got so full that they temporarily closed the queue. I actually gave up on a couple of the more popular ones as a result.

After dinner, I decided to find a place to watch the big water and light show. The best seats require a reservation (via the lottery, of course), but there's plenty of other places you can watch it from. Unfortunately, even though I showed up more than an hour in advance, the waterfront seating was pretty full. I was, however, able to secure a good spot behind the Water Plaza, up on the Grand Ring. The show was pretty long and involved fountains, lights, images projected on the water, and even some fire jets. There was some sort of story involving a boy, a bird, and monsters, but that didn't really matter. It was a very good water show, and the surprise fireworks at the end were a nice touch. While the Expo stayed open for a little longer after the end of the show, that seemed like a good time to leave. I was hoping to beat the crowds, though that didn't really work out...

Anyway, I think the best way to describe Expo 2025 is to take Epcot, get rid of all the rides, and add really long lines (and a terrible web site and reservation system) to everything. It's certainly interesting and I'm glad I went, though if you're in the Osaka area for the first time, I wouldn't call it a must see by any means, there's lots of better things to see and do. But if you have the time, it's a worth a visit. Just be prepared to either deal with long lines or try your luck with the lottery if you actually want to go in most of the pavilions.

The trip back went smoothly (no lost students or anything) and later that evening we had our traditional one day early farewell dinner. This year we ended up at a pretty fancy buffet high above Asakusa. It was a great view and pretty good food. Interestingly, there was even a section of the buffet dedicated to different brands of bottled water from all over Japan, ranked based on how hard or soft the water was. That was definitely the most unique feature.

After that, there was quite a lot of time to kill before our last studio visit, so we visited Koshikawa Korakuen Garden. I hadn't been there for many years, but I remembered it being one of the nicest gardens in Tokyo and it didn't disappoint. The garden made for a peaceful last sightseeing destination and, being right next to Tokyo Dome (the baseball stadium and the attached shopping and entertainment complex), there were plenty of places for students to eat and play around afterwards.

As usual, our final studio visit of the year was Rudel (part of Reazon Holdings). It was a bit more low key this time around, but still made for a good wrap-up to the tour. While each year had its strengths and weaknesses, I can confidently say that this year's tour was easily the smoothest it's ever gone. But, while the tour was over, I still had a little bit of time left in Japan...

I decided to start out with teamLab Borderless. I deliberately hadn't done any research ahead of time so I went in without too much in the way of expectations. Borderless is a dark almost mazelike place without any sort of set route (in fact, finding all the different exhibits is part of the experience). Much of it uses a mixture of screens and projectors to display the art on the walls. Most of the rooms aren't dedicated to specific displays, but rather different layouts on which to display the ever changing art. Basically, there's a number of pieces of art displayed in Borderless, but the majority are constantly moving computer animations generated in real time. And by moving, I don't just mean the animations. The art moves from room to room around the gallery. Once, for example, I entered a room filled with ocean waves only for them to wash away down the hall as a swarm of butterflies came to replace them. Some of them can also change pretty significantly based on the room itself due to the wildly different layouts. The different pieces of artwork can also interact with each other. For another example, here's ones of the largest rooms in Borderless which, when I first came across it, was filled with a waterfall. Later on, it was taken over by an iris field which was interrupted by a group of crows I'd seen flying around many other parts of the museum. The crows stayed for a while as the field was replaced by the flowers I'd first seen near the entrance, along with a rain of kanji characters. Oh, and did I mention that visitors can interact with much of the art as well? For example, if a person (or one of those aforementioned crows) touched one of the kanji it would turn into whatever that particular character represented. I'll note that I'm only showing a tiny fraction of the rooms, artwork, and interactions as exploring and seeing what you can find, and how it changes during your time in the museum, is really fun and interesting. Even the tea room features unique interactive artwork, which changes as you eat and drink (the tea and ice cream are very good too). That said, Borderless does have a few more set physical exhibits (if you can find them) which make use of mirrors and changing lights to seemingly stretch into infinity. I spent a bit over two hours exploring, in which time I think I found every room (though the low light, confusing layout, and lack of maps means I might have missed something), but with how much things change, I could have stayed longer. It was a really unique experience and I highly recommend it.

My next stop was teamLab Planets but that was in a different part of Tokyo and I needed to get something to eat so I gave myself quite a while to get there. Planets was a lot busier (not sure if that's normal or just since I went there later in the day) and, even with my timed entry ticket, I had to wait in line for a little while to get in (not a big deal except that it was raining at the time). Unlike Borderless, it had a clear layout and all the art was confined to its own areas. It's divided into three zones. Water required you to take off your shows (lockers were provided) then follow a set route from exhibit to exhibit, separated by long, dark halls. Despite the name, only a couple of them involved water (they're the reason you needed to take off your shoes). There was also some overlap with Borderless and some totally unique rooms. It was all pretty neat, but I did kind of wish they had more water stuff given the theme and all. Once I made it to the end of Water and reclaimed my shoes, it was off to Forest. It features a small garden and two "forests." Capture Forest lets you roam around a number of virtual environments and use an app on your phone to capture the various extinct animals that roam around the area (as a note, even with a good cell signal, it doesn't seem to work right unless you're connected to the local wi-fi). I caught over 22 animals but the app lists 87 different ones you can find and, if you want to fill out all of their information, you need to catch three copies of each. If you really want to catch 'em all, I would expect it to take at least two or three hours. Didn't hold my attention for that long (and I wanted see the rest of the exhibits anyway), but I could seem some people (especially kids) getting hooked. The Athletic Forest, meanwhile, was all about interactive exhibits, most of which involved the art changing and you did something physical such as balancing, climbing, or sliding. Honestly, felt a bit more like a fancy play area than art, but it was fun. The Garden area was the smallest and featured just one exhibit, a room full of live hanging flowers that rise and lower through the air based on their proximity to visitors. There was also an out door area, but there wasn't much there other than a restaurant and, due to the heavy rain, I didn't really feel like hanging around. Over all, Planets was cool and certainly unique; really good for kids as well. Though, if you don't mind the lack of "play" spaces, I think Borderless is the better of the two.

Once I finished, it was getting close to dinner time so I swung by Odaiba, which was nearby, to do a little shopping and get some sushi, wrapping up my final day in Japan.

I managed to get a window seat for the first time in quite a while so I got a few good shots of Tokyo as we took off. The flight itself wasn't terrible, but there were very frequent bouts of turbulence for the entire duration so it certainly could have been better.

All in all, it was a good trip though, having spent quite a while expecting a family trip afterwards, the short duration was a bit disappointing. But I can't complain too much and there's always next year.