Taylor Swift mania sweeps Tokyo for sold-out concerts, with all eyes on return trip to Super Bowl

Tokyo CNN —

Long lines in snowy weather to buy merchandise days in advance. Hordes of fans, some from other countries, filling up the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome, excitedly swapping homemade bracelets. People around the world feverishly calculating time zones and watching online flight trackers.

This is the Taylor Swift phenomenon – and the mania that has followed the pop superstar as she prepares to perform four nights of sold-out shows in Tokyo before potentially jetting back to Las Vegas to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play at the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Tokyo leg of Swift’s Eras Tour – a multi-continent extravaganza that could end up as the highest-grossing tour of all time – kicked off Wednesday evening and ends Saturday night.

The area outside the Tokyo Dome was packed hours before doors opened on the first night Wednesday, with fans decked out in glitter, tassels, tiaras and kimonos.

Taylor Swift fans pose for pictures ahead of the first leg of her Asia-Pacific Eras Tour in Tokyo on February 7, 2024.

Kana Ishiyone, 28, traveled from her home in Fukuoka, in southwestern Japan, to Tokyo for the concert – for which she has bought tickets to all four nights. She has loved Swift since 2009 – to the point she learned English to understand the song lyrics, and left her job to move about more freely during the tour.

“I’m taking a two-year break for going to her concerts,” she said, speaking outside the concert venue with pink stickers on her cheeks. “I quit my job when she announced this Eras Tour.”

The Eras Tour had its first show in March 2023 and will continue through December 2024.

A truck advertising Taylor Swift's Japan tour drives through Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Japan, on February 6, 2024.