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I thought this Tokyo museum would be a major tourist trap. It ended up being a highlight of my first trip to Japan.

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TeamLab Planets quickly made a name for itself after opening its doors in 2018. It holds the Guinness World Record for the most-visited museum dedicated to a single group or artist, bringing in more than 2.5 million visitors from April 2023 to March 2024.

A popular second location in Tokyo, known as teamLab Borderless, focuses on digital art.

Both museums were launched by teamLab, an international art collective that includes artists, animators, engineers, mathematicians, and architects among its specialists. Together, they work to “explore the relationship between the self and the world,” according to the museum’s website, although global brand director Takashi Kudo said they have an even bigger goal.

“If these exhibitions cannot reach an emotional height, then we have failed,” he told The New York Times in 2024. “We have to reach people’s hearts.”




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The 5 vacation destinations that will be more expensive to visit in 2026 because of tourist taxes

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Tourists love Kyoto for its ancient temples, pagodas, and its cherry blossoms. But from early next year, staying in the Japanese city will become more expensive.

After March 1, visitors in Kyoto will face higher overnight taxes on accommodation across the city.

The tax is tiered according to the nightly cost of accommodation: rooms under 6,000 yen, about $38, a night will remain taxed at 200 yen, or $1.28, while the tax on rooms priced between 6,000 and 20,000 yen a night will double to 400 yen.

The steepest increases will be applied to high-end accommodations. Rooms costing 50,000 to 100,000 yen a night will see the tax jump from 1,000 to 4,000 yen, and those over 100,000 yen will rise tenfold to 10,000 yen.

Kyoto’s government estimates the revised tax will generate 12.6 billion yen a year, about $81 million.




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