Team Lab Metsa Village Illumination – The newly opened Metsa Village will host Team Lab’s Digitized Lakeside and Forest this winter 2018 / 2019. Digitized Lakeside and Forest is the name Team Lab have given it in English, from the Japanese it translates more like “Festival of light of the forest and lake”.
This event took place in the winter of 2018 / 2019. This year’s illumination event.
Unlike other night illumination in Saitama this one is charged (see information section). But it is also very different to any other night illumination to date. There are several interactive displays some using Team Labs signature balls of light (as in the featured photo). They also have the lake and others lit up.
Team Lab have enjoyed great acclaim this year due to a number of new events and installations in the Tokyo area, but Team Lab has been around in Saitama for much longer than that. They are the people who brought us the innovative play area “Team Lab Islands”, the very first of its kind (in Japan), in Lalaport in Fujimi:
Update 2020 ~ we now have a permanent outdoor TeamLab in Tokorozawa, relatively near Metsa:
Team Lab Metsa Village Illumination Information
Period: December 1st 2018 to March 3rd 2019. It will close for New Years from December 31st to January 2nd.
Hours: 5.30 pm to 9 pm until February 11th, and from 6 pm to 9 pm from February 12th to March 3rd.
Cost: 1,000 yen per adult on a weekday, 1,200 yen on the weekend. The children’s fee is 500 yen on a weekday and 600 yen on the weekend. Children under three years old are free in.
Tickets: Tickets are already on sale. You can get tickets from Lawson Ticket. The Loppi code is【Ⅼ Code: 34123】. They have a special offer for a pair ticket bought in advance. Website no longer live so the link has been removed.
Location: Metsa Village in Hanno. Further information:
Access:
Map and other details in the grey details box at the bottom of post.
About 10 minutes in the car to / from Sayama Hidaka Interchange of the Ken-o expressway. Parking has to be booked in advance through the Metsa Village website. And costs 1,500 yen on a weekday, 2,500 yen on the weekend.
By train you can access Metsa Village from either Seibu Ikebukuro Line’s Hanno Station or from JR Hachiko Line’s Higashi Hanno station. Unfortunately, both are quite a walk to the resort, taking at least 35 minutes on foot. However, you can take a bus from both on weekends and from Hanno station on weekdays. The village is about a 12 minute walk from the bus stop.
For more winter and illumination events in Saitama, please see the main events calendar.
A first hand account of visiting the event from Jonelle Patrick: