Planning

A short, honest page for visitors who’ve read the journal essay and now want to work out how to actually spend the day. Nine years of my own mistakes, condensed.

Getting to the museums

Both of the main immersive art spaces in Tokyo — the one on Odaiba and the smaller one in the centre — are easy to reach by train. Odaiba: Yurikamome line to Aomi station, then a five-minute walk. Central: the Roppongi metro is about fifteen minutes; the walk from Azabujuban is nicer if you have time. Both are also served by taxi, which is worth doing on a rainy evening if you have wet clothes to protect.

If you have a Suica or Pasmo card from an earlier trip, top it up before you leave the hotel. The queue for the machines at Aomi at 18:00 on a Friday will steal ten minutes you meant to spend on a photograph.

Timed entry — editorially

Every art space I write about in this journal uses timed entry. You pick an arrival slot when you book. Some flexibility is possible (the operators are humane about early arrivals and slightly late ones), but if you turn up two hours after your slot without warning you are asking a favour.

Evening slots are noticeably more expensive than mid-afternoon ones. If you have flexibility, take the mid-afternoon: the light in the rooms doesn’t care what time it is, the crowds are thinner, and you keep the evening free for a walk.

I am not going to write about prices, because I don’t sell tickets and I don’t know them accurately as of the moment you’re reading this. The operator’s own site has that information in plain English. This journal has never sold anything and never will.

Wet-shoe warning — the water room

If you plan to visit the Odaiba space, one of its rooms is a shallow pool of water. Not decorative shallow. Actual up-to-your-shins shallow, more in the far corners. The museum provides wraps and lockers. Follow the guidance at the entrance:

• Wear trousers you can roll to the knee, or wear shorts. Long dresses are a bad choice.
• Don’t bring shoes you love; leather does not enjoy this room.
• Bring a small dry cloth for your phone. There are no plate-glass barriers between you and the koi projection.
• If you are photographing, use a wrist strap. I don’t know a single Tokyo photographer who has not almost dropped a camera in that room, myself included.

It is honestly not for everyone. If you like the idea in principle but hate the practicality, skip the water room and take the corridor around it. There is a corridor. The staff will show you.

Best times of day

• 10:30 opening slot. Emptiest walkway. The mirrored lantern hall is almost still. Do this if you are photographing.
• 14:30 mid-afternoon. Cheapest, calmest. My default recommendation for anyone who doesn’t care about sunset.
• 17:30 sunset. The bay outside the Odaiba space looks lovely in golden hour; the inside light doesn’t care. Crowded, expensive, worth it once if you have the money.
• Last slot of the evening. Emptier than you’d think. The immersive rooms are calmer after 20:00. Not photogenic outside; extremely photogenic inside.

Even with a booked slot, there is a queue

Ten to twenty-five minutes at the entrance is standard. Longer on weekends and holidays. This is not a flaw of the operator, it’s the security check and locker rotation. Budget the extra half hour beyond your arrival window and do not plan a taxi to leave at a fixed time from the museum. It will make you tense and the tension travels into the visit.

What to pack

• Camera with a fast prime lens, and a wrist strap.
• Small dry cloth (for the water room mist).
• Water. There are vending machines nearby but not always inside.
• A thin windproof for the walk back across the bridge if you’re walking to the station.
• An empty memory card. On my second visit I filled 64GB.

Pairing with the rest of Tokyo

Odaiba is a solid full-afternoon plan: museum, walk around the bay, the shopping mall next door for a rest, and back on the Yurikamome for a slow blue-hour ride into Shimbashi. The central museum pairs neatly with a night walk through Roppongi or Ginza (see the walks page). Two of Tokyo’s best public art parks are within fifteen minutes of both spaces if you enjoy sculpture in daylight.

— J.