Date: 2025-04-18 – 2023-04-20
Location: Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan
Type: Convention
Costume: none
I went to Japan for Star Wars Celebration in April. This was my fourth Celebration. It was also one of the largest in terms of attendees, with over 105.000 people.
Star Wars Celebration is the largest Star Wars fan convention in the world. It is somewhat bi-annually and moves around. The previous Celebration was London 2023. The next one will be Los Angeles 2027.
At a Star Wars Celebration you’ll typically find:
- The main Lucasfilm panels on the large stages.
- Smaller panels on smaller stages or rooms.
- Vendors and booths selling all kinds of starwarsy things.
- Food courts
- Thousands of people who loves Star Wars.
I didn’t get into any of the main panels. But from what I’ve heard, they weren’t that “important”. A couple of announcements, no new trailers, a few guests. But all of the guests also visited the live stage, so I got to see Sigourney Weaver, Ryan Gosling, Pedro Pascal, Diego Luna, Pedro Pascal, Adria Arjona and more even though I didn’t go to their panels.
My trip started on Friday 11th at 3.40 PM. I traveled Mo i Rana – Trondheim – Oslo, and spent a night in an airport hotel. Early Saturday morning i traveled from Oslo – Munich – Tokyo. I arrived on Sunday at 1 AM Norwegian time, 8 AM Japan time, after being “in transit” for over 33 hours. I never get any sleep in airplanes, so I was very tired. Most of Sunday was spent in the hotel.
On Monday I explored Akihabara and Ueno park. I saw cherry blossoms for the first time in my life, ordered food in rudimentary japanese, and got to know the public transport in Tokyo. The highlight of the day was probably relaxing for an hour in a cat café.
On Tuesday I went on a guided tour to the Imperial Palace, the Senso-ji temple in Asakusa and finally the observation deck of Tokyo Tower. I wasn’t that impressed with the tour, but the guide was very knowledgeble and funny.
On Wednesday I picked up my Celebration badge. After that I went to Shinjuku in the hopes of visiting Gorjia at the Hotel Gracery, but the viewing balcony was unfortunately closed for visitors. I only got to see the kaiju from the street. I also went to Shibuya, visited the statue of Hachikō, watched the famous 3D billboard and braved the Shibuya Crossing, the worlds most busy pedestrian intersection in the world.
On Thursday I went on a bus ride to Lake Kawaguchi a couple of hours outside of Tokyo. There were a cable car up the hill with a great view of Mt. Fuji and the lake. After that we went to a tea house and got to experience a matcha tea seremony. We ate lunch, and went to Oshino Hakkai before stopping by a Lawson convenience store on the way back. The store is apparently a famous photo spot. I don’t understand why. It’s just a regular convenience store.
Friday to Sunday was spent in Makuhari Messe in Chiba, about 40 minutes outside of Tokyo.
On Saturday I went to the Matsuri bash and got to experience taiko drum performers up close. It was probably my favorite experience on the entire trip.
I started my trip back home on Sunday afternoon. The plane departed 9.40 PM local time, 2.40 PM Norwegian time. Tokyo – Frankfurt – Oslo – Bodø – Mo i Rana. I landed 3.25 PM on Monday, about 25 hours later. Interestingly the plane from Tokyo to Frankfurt flew north of Russia and over the arctics. It is possible that the plane was visible from home somewhere around 2.30 AM.