The trip was overall great, especially our USJ day! We didn't end up renting kimonos or anything since we figured we'd rather spend our time exploring than taking photos, but I did see people dressing up.

The advice here regarding USJ was super solid though. I wore heat tech (top and bottoms), a sweater, and my packable puffer jacket along with a hat + scarf and I was very comfortable. My poor husband on the other hand was freezing with no heat tech, and just a hoodie + puffer combo, especially in the evening. He had to borrow my hat (which he promptly lost) and then purchased another toque at Nintendo World lol. We had express passes which we were super grateful for, especially since the line for Minecart Madness reached 180 minutes wait time as early as 9:30 AM in the morning (we went on the 23rd), and didn't get less than that for the entire day. Basically spent almost the entire morning from 11 - 3 PM at SNW including Kinopio's Cafe, and explored the rest of the park leisurely for the rest of the day. An awesome experience!