The highlight of my Japan trip so far has been Tokyo Disneyland. Could this be the unlikeliest sentence I’ve ever written? Possibly. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved the food, the shrines, the shopping and the cityscape (I could spend days on the 55th floor of the Mori tower, looking at Tokyo), but I expected to love all of this. I absolutely did not expect to love Disneyland.

I wasn’t even going to go at first, but decided to tag along in the end, anticipating to be bored and roll my eyes at everything. I’ve never been to a Disney theme park before, so cannot compare to the ones in other countries, but this certainly was an experience. The resort was crowded (we were lucky to be there on Monday – it can be twice as crowded on peak days and I have difficulties imagining that) and mostly full of locals who take their Disney very seriously. They come early – apparently, the die-hard fans arrive around six in the morning – and they come dressed up.

Never mind the attractions, the visitors make for a visual feast. A huge number of people wear costumes, many of them extremely elaborate and impressive. If you went to Harajuku and it was a quiet day, leaving you with a thirst for more Japanese aesthetic weirdness, this is the place to be. True, most of it is Disney-inspired, but keep in mind that it’s not usually my thing and I turned out to not mind at all.

After you recover from the onslaught of all the Cinderellas and Belles, Elsas and Anas, Snow Whites and Rapunzels, you’ll notice how many tribes there are. Alice is unsurprisingly popular, in all its variations: from cute toddlers to provocative teens to an occasional nerdy grown-up. Cool kids seem to favour Zootopia characters or animal onesies or other less obvious choices – coming as a pack of cards, for example. Almost everything is represented, though: from monsters and witches to Donalds (especially popular with little boys) and Minnies to Cruellas and Evil Queens to Star Wars to anything cute or justifying a wig. Ideally, both. And maybe a tail. And sticker makeup.

Just replicating a look may not seem like much of a style, but bear with me. First of all, there is an art to selecting the character. It leads to great moments like this royal family above or double takes when you see four Snow Whites walking together (the Japanese love group dressing, there are many identical pairs, triplets or quadruplets, but also connected characters like three fairy godmothers from The Sleeping Beauty – although I saw a group of seven at one point). Second, there is the time, effort and skill that goes into it: the princesses come in full hair and make-up, looking flawless in their crinolined dresses; an impeccable Cheshire cat or a full skeleton look are surely as difficult to get right. The make-up and accessories tend to be especially well thought-out.

And third, not everyone is going full Disney. Some people clearly refuse to change their dress-up style just because they are in Disneyland and come in (what I presume is their usual) Lolita or goth get-up. The most interesting looks style-wise, however, are the ones where people incorporate some Disney elements into their everyday wardrobe, resulting in Burberry and cashmere-clad girls with teddybear ears or androgynous couples in cool trainers and leather with Mickey Mouse sweatshirts. Or that lady in black wearing a mix of Chanel and bunny accessories. Needless to say, bows, cat ears, bags shaped like objects from movies and socks go with everything.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had so much fun people-watching and OMG the kids. I’m sure I ended up on the wrong side of creepy several times, but the cutesomeness is just unbearable. I’ve already decided to go to Paris Disneyland in not-too-distant future. The only thing is: who will I be?

PS I realised way too late that I needed to blog about Tokyo Disneyland, so most of these photos have been taken during a frantic 20-minute period before my battery died. Believe me, this doesn’t even begin to reflect the variety and greatness of looks on display.