This Is Japan

It's often said on Disney forums that Disney Tokyo is the best Disney park, because its attention to detail far surpasses any other Disney park. I tend to agree. But I'm starting to realize that a big part of what makes it better are actually the guests who visit Tokyo Disney - often enthusiastic, happy Tokyoites who throw themselves into the entire fantasy world created by an American man half a century ago, half a world away.

If you have any doubts about this, just visit Disney Tokyo at Halloween. It's completely INSANE. The combination of fervent Disney fans with fervent cosplay culture creates, for two weeks a year, a park like you've never seen. If you're thinking "what's the point of seeing an American theme park if I'm in Japan" - well, it's because you will NEVER see anything like this in America. While Americans treat Halloween as a time to dress up to express themselves, Japanese people in Disney collectively dress up to create the fantasy world of Disney inside the park.

Yes. That is real fur trim on the dress.

Disney Tokyo is the only Disney park worldwide that only allows Disney character costumes at Halloween, which means that the illusion of their fantasy world is reinforced by the dedication of the fans who dress up. So not only are you standing in front of Cinderella Castle, you're standing in front of Cinderella Castle surrounded by a hundred princesses, fairy godmothers, evil witches, and princes, many of whom are women who've dressed as men in order to create sets of characters with their friends.

And like the Disney Shibuya store, this isn't an event for children, but for young adults. So all the characters come in two varieties: regular and sexy.

As I suspected, there were no other unique varieties such as the Super Tigger I found in the Anaheim park. That kind of quirk of individualistic expression at Halloween is reserved for us crazy Americans.

People were glad to pose for photos, and would often even thank you for asking. Maybe it's just that Japanese people are super polite, or maybe I had just paid a compliment to their cosplay activities. My biggest challenge to getting good photos was more the lack of a good low-light camera than a lack of cooperation from the wonderfully dressed guests.

I also discovered that if I stopped any group of matching costumes for a photo, other Japanese people would crowd around for their own photos. It's almost like they wanted to ask, but were too polite to interrupt, and the rude American (uh, that's me) made it okay for them to take a photo too. Thus we had scenes like this one, where the group of evil witches from Snow White were trapped for about 10 minutes as a horde of Snow Whites took turns getting their photos taken with the group after I interrupted them to take a snapshot.

Note the Snow White standing off to the right. There are more Snow Whites next to her, all watching and waiting for their turn.

Ditto this group of aliens from Toy Story.

The favorite themes at Halloween were princesses (Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Snow White with an occasional Rapunzel), Alice (wildly popular) often accompanied by a Queen of Hearts, and Toy Story characters Woody, Jessie, and Buzz.

I wonder how long he practiced his haughty Buzz Lightyear expression.

Villains didn't figure as prominently in Disney Halloween, as I expected. Out of the hundreds of elaborate dressed-up figures, there was one group of villains hanging out by the castle. I guess Japanese people prefer to be the good guys.

What these photos of individual costumes don't show, and what was the most wonderful part of the experience, is the sense of amazement I had seeing these very elaborate costumes everywhere in the park. Every time I turned around I saw someone who had put in more effort, worked up more detail, acting more in character, than I saw before. It was a breathtaking experience.

Yep. That's me in the Tigger outfit. 

If anyone is going to be in Tokyo on Halloween, and they want to know what Japan is about, a trip to Disney Tokyo is a must. While all the characters were created at the Mouse House in the US, there is something undeniably and uniquely Japanese about this experience. This is no pale reproduction of the real thing. This is the real Japan, taking something they like, embracing it, and executing on it like it's never been done before.