Everyone dreams of cherry blossom season, but Autumn is actually my favourite time to visit Japan as you get to get to enjoy all the kawaii Halloween fun, and if you time it right, get a little bit of Christmas too. Here’s some photos we took in Japan at Halloween, plus some tips for planning a trip next year or creating your own version at home.
Theme Parks at Halloween
The last time I was in Japan (with my sister, and occasional SCK writer, Nicolette), we celebrated Halloween at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. Neither of us are really theme park people but USJ at least has a mix of franchises so there’s a lot of different things to see. It’s even more exciting now too with the addition of Super Nintendo World.
As kawaii fans, the highlight was the Sanrio area as the decorations and displays were too cute and we even got to meet Hello Kitty herself! This area is mainly aimed at kids but that didn’t stop us going on Hello Kitty’s cupcake ride. There’s also shops with limited edition and exclusive Halloween merch, and spooky snacks to try.
While you can still just buy a general entry ticket and turn up, you do need to do some research and planning if there are popular areas, rides, events or restaurants you don’t want to miss out on as some require advance booking, special passes or even a lottery for entry. Channels like TDR Explorer cover everything you need to know about visiting USJ or Disneyland & DisneySea and get early access to the latest areas, rides, merch, food and more.
Disney have even posted a movie-length walkthrough of Tokyo DisneySea at Halloween (plus Disneyland in California) with snacks, merch, rides and more so you can really see what it’s like to visit. For reading material, Tokyo Weekender has a good article about Japan’s Best Theme Park Halloween Events, including Sanrio Puroland. Emma also shared some tips here on SCK for visiting Super Nintendo World and The Disney Parks at Christmas, and a lot of that will apply to Halloween and other holidays too. She’s just won the lottery to visit USJ on New Year’s Eve so look out for a post about that in January.
Character Cafes & Snacks
Theme parks can be expensive and exhausting but you can still find Halloween kawaii all over Japan. I definitely recommend visiting a character cafe if you’re in Japan in the run-up to Halloween, Christmas or other holidays as there are sure to be limited edition menus, merch and decor to enjoy. On our last trip, we visited the Pokemon Cafe in Tokyo just after Halloween, which still had some Ghost-type options including the Gengar smoothie and Mimikyu pancakes we tried.
But even konbini (convenience stores) will have lots of seasonal snacks and desserts to try with spooky cute packaging and designs. These make great gifts and souvenirs too, especially Halloween-themed KitKats.
Shopping
As you already know from our Halloween shopping picks, many popular character brands like Sanrio, San-X, Pokemon and Disney create special designs for Halloween, plus there’s general stuff like stickers, stationery, homeware and decorations.
Seeing all the displays in big stores like Kiddyland, Loft or the Pokemon Center can be overwhelming and it’s difficult not to buy everything. I’m still a bit obsessed with those witch Hannari Tofu plush I saw at HAPiNS. We spent a small fortune on dress-up Rilakkuma & Kogumachan plushies with a set of 4 Halloween costumes to share but they were the perfect companions for USJ and we still dress them up every year at home.
Halloween in Japan – at home!
You can still enjoy a bit of the experience of a kawaii Halloween in Japan now that online shopping is so much easier. Japanese snack boxes like TokyoTreat always do a Halloween theme and you can also buy individual snacks from sites like Japan Haul, Sugoi Mart (all JP) and Starry Mart (UK). Kawaii plush, stationery and more is available from kawaii shops worldwide. VeryGoods and Meccha Japan (both JP) have all the latest character goods, and I can especially recommend ARTBOX (UK) and Cuteness (NL) for Japanese imports. Check our guide to The Best Kawaii Shops Worldwide for more.
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