Immersive Art, Roaming Theatre, Dancing Cats: Explore Tokyo’s Creative Side

It’s commonly said that in Japan that “the nail that sticks up will be nailed down.” Of course, some nails just won’t go, and Japanese culture is all the richer for them. Under that thin veneer of social homogeny, Japan’s creative energy runs hot, producing bold, innovative artists that continually challenge the norm in performance, cinema, music, fashion, the fine arts, and countless other forms of creative expression.  

Creative Japan flourishes all over the country, from seasonal festivals to Naoshima, a small island reimagined as a celebration of modern art. It’s easy to find a cutting-edge exhibition or gallery, pick up some anime or Godzilla merch, or catch a kabuki performance (forget about seeing Harajuku Girls. Japan’s teen fashion and cosplay scene moved to Instagram years ago). But here are three slightly more unique ways to lose yourself in Japan’s creative energy without ever leaving Tokyo and with no translation needed. 

teamLab: Imagination’s Digital Escape in Japan

If you’ve ever seen an exhibition of works by the artist Yayoi Kusama, you already know how it feels to step inside a seemingly infinite work of art and let it play with your imagination. teamLab, an international digital art collective with exhibits throughout Japan, take this idea further still. Their installations bring art, technology, the natural world, and each guest’s sense of wonder together in vast works of digital art.   

Opened in summer of 2018 for what was meant to be a limited period, teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM is still going strong. With new exhibits added as recently as 2025, it’s claimed the mantle as teamLab’s most popular location with over 2.5 million visitors in 2023, so you’ll want to book a timed slot well in advance of your visit. That said, during our visit, venue staff did an excellent job managing admission numbers, ensuring we always felt immersed in the artwork, not a tourist crowd. 

teamLab Planets currently includes four areas: Water, Forest, Garden, and Open-Air. The Water section is the original exhibit, inviting guests to take off their shoes, and explore a crystal universe created from points of light, enormous floating balloons, and a wading pool filled with holographic koi fish that respond to each guest’s movements just as their natural counterparts would. That idea takes an altogether different form in the Garden section, where a living, suspended garden rises and falls in gentle response to each guest’s presence, encouraging slow exploration as the plants make way. Interaction and that sense of play are integral to each work, but in the newest section, Forest, opened in 2025, it takes centre stage.  

Part art museum and part playground, this colourful chapter in teamLab Planets’ story contains artworks built to test balance, perception, and most of all, imagination. With high concepts for the adults and several artworks designed just for younger visitors, it embodies what’s ultimately so great about the teamLab experience. It connects our adult ideas about the world with those childhood memories of play and exploration, immersing each guest as a moving part of the art rather than a passive observer.   

Each teamLab experience is, of course, different, and like all good art, the question of which site is the best comes down to your own tastes and interpretation. The original teamLab Borderless: Mori Digital Art Museum, located close to Tokyo Tower, offers more than 75 works to immerse you, staying true to the original teamLabs vision. Note that this is not the same location or experience as teamLab Planets TOKYO DMM, which is located in the Toyosu district near Tokyo’s Odaiba entertainment hub.  

teamLab Botanical Garden in Osaka is a nighttime experience combining interactive art with nature, while teamLab Biovortex Kyoto is the new kid in town, and the largest museum with 50 artworks spread over 10,000 square feet of immersive space. It emphasises tactile interactions while exploring the difference between reality and human perception. However, teamLab Planets: TOKYO DMM remains the most popular attraction with international visitors not just in teamLab’s world, but in Japan as a whole. Apparently, we just love wading and climbing through unforgettable artworks. 

Anemoia Tokyo: Your Train to Another World

What if you could take a train to a world where regular Tokyoites break free of the mundane in their search for lost loved ones, encountering all manner of kami or Japanese spirits along the way? Imagine being their silent witness. The immersive theatre craze has grabbed a firm foothold in Anglophone theatre hubs like London and New York, but it takes on an extra dimension while visiting a country whose language you don’t speak. Suddenly, the barriers to communication fall away. The universal languages of mood, music, dance and mystery take over, and suddenly, you’re in a Japan where modernity and legend mingle to create seamless, wordless art. 

Arriving at Anemoia’s site-specific venue near Tokyo Station, we’re welcomed with a letter, assigning us to group A, B, C or D, and a plain white cat mask to identify us as visitors to this world. We enjoy a few minutes to ourselves to explore the sets, familiarizing ourselves with the space before the voice of the Tokyo metro asks us to board our train. Within moments, we’re surrounded by an energetic cast of contemporary dancers, choreography setting the scene before we’re whisked into Anemoia’s world. From traditional ceremonies to spirit-summoning rituals, mundane office frustrations to martial arts displays and lost love, Anemoia’s slim runtime covers a lot, exploring Japanese tradition, legend, iconography and social commentary. Yet, the story never feels contrived or rushed, nor staged for tourists. Rather than telling its audience what to think or feel, or showcasing cliches of Japanese culture, the cast tells a story that resonates equally with locals and foreigners. 

Many visitors to Tokyo explore Japanese theatre by picking up a single-act ticket to Kabuki-Za or catching a local spin on their favourite musical performed by the all-female Takarazuka Revue. But Tokyo is a massive city with an enormous performing arts scene. By staying open to new experiences, you never know where Japan’s creative minds will take you. 

Bakeneko: Tokyo’s Halloween Monster Cat Parade

This one only happens once a year, but it’s a must if you fancy yourself a cat person. 

Ever thought you’d dress up as a magical cat, join the samba line and nyaah your way through the streets of Tokyo? One of Tokyo’s most beloved traditions ahead of Halloween, the Bakeneko or Supernatural Cat parade invites cat lovers of all ages to create the purrrfect costume, celebrate the country’s favourite household pet and its patron spirits, enjoy some traditional Japanese performance arts and food and explore Tokyo’s colourful but seldom-touristed Kagurazaka neighborhood. 

Not keen on hauling a cat costume to Japan? Don’t worry. A store-bought mask—or in our case, the one from our adventure at Anemoia—will do fine, or you can arrive early to have your face painted on the day for a small fee. Then, a small registration fee later, and you’re welcome to join any or all of several parades held throughout the day. Each one creates its own flavour, from pipe band to jazz to samba. Never say cats are stuck in routine! 

The Bakeneko parade isn’t quite the hidden tradition it used to be, having found online celebrity and been featured—quite accurately—in the Brendan Fraser film Rental Family in 2025 (in which teamLab Planets also appears), but it’s still a great local day out for cat lovers, so far unspoiled by social media. 

Shinjuku’s 3D cat, which hovers above the northern end of Shinjuku station watching passers-by hasn’t been so lucky. This digital feline grew so popular it had to be interspersed with commercials to prevent jamming foot traffic. But it’s still a must-see for cat lovers, along with Gotoku-ji in the Setagaya City district, the temple responsible for the waving "lucky cat."

Not far from the 3D cat, be sure to pay your respects to another giant Shinjuku icon, Godzilla. You can see his head peeking out over Toho Cinemas’ flagship location, a fitting reminder that even in orderly Japan, a little creative disruption is a beautiful and vital thing.

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