Where to buy Chiikawa and character goods in Japan — official stores, Amazon/Rakuten and shipping to your hotel

The Pokémon Company's English shop list covers Pokémon Centers from Sapporo to Okinawa — in Tokyo alone there are branches in Nihonbashi (TOKYO DX), Ikebukuro's Sunshine City (MEGA TOKYO), Shibuya PARCO and Tokyo Skytree Town — plus smaller Pokémon Stores, including ones at Tokyo Station, Narita Airport (Terminal 1, South Wing 4F) and New Chitose Airport's domestic terminal. The Tokyo Station store describes itself as a compact shop whose range is re-edited from the more than 5,000 products the Pokémon Centers carry, so for the full range go to a Center; TOKYO DX, for example, lists opening hours of 10:30–21:00.

Pokémon Center's FAQ sets the ground rules. On crowded days a shop may issue numbered tickets or restrict entry, and some items carry quantity limits. Products can't be put on hold, and as a rule the shops don't give out stock or restock information — for a particular item, the FAQ suggests going early or using Pokémon Center ONLINE. Unopened, unused goods can be returned or exchanged within 14 days at the shop where you bought them, with the receipt. Credit cards, code payments and transit IC cards are accepted, though the brands vary by shop.

For Studio Ghibli there's Donguri Republic (どんぐり共和国), whose shop list runs to around 40 branches from Sapporo PARCO to Okinawa: several in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, two in Kyoto's Higashiyama sightseeing area (Kiyomizu and Ninenzaka), and others in the hot-spring and resort towns covered in the regional section below. Sanrio has a shop on Tokyo Character Street and an official store search on its website, and miffy style, the Bruna-approved miffy shop produced by Kiddy Land, has a branch on the same street.

Chiikawa's official goods are sold at Chiikawa Land (ちいかわらんど), which the official Chiikawa Info site lists as 16 permanent shops: Harajuku, Tokyo Station, Tokyo Skytree Town Solamachi, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro PARCO in Tokyo, plus Yokohama, Koshigaya Lake Town (Saitama), Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Kanazawa, Kyoto (Shijo Kawaramachi), Osaka (Umeda and Shinsaibashi), Hiroshima and Fukuoka. There are also three Magical Chiikawa (まじかるちいかわ) stores — Shinjuku Marui, Umeda HEP FIVE and Nagoya PARCO — a changing run of limited-time pop-up shops, and Chiikawa goods at a number of Kiddy Land branches.

The easiest one to fit into a trip is Chiikawa Land TOKYO Station, on Tokyo Character Street on the B1 floor of the First Avenue Tokyo Station mall (Tokyo Eki Ichibangai). The mall lists it as open 10:00–20:30 and taking cash, credit cards, e-money and code payments. Pop-up shops run for limited periods, from under a week to several weeks, so check the Chiikawa Info pages for what's open during your dates.

Chiikawa Market (ちいかわマーケット), the official online shop, is built around addresses in Japan, and its rules make it a poor fit for a short stay. You must register (free) to order; orders can't be changed or cancelled; orders over an item's quantity limit are cancelled; delivery is by Yamato TA-Q-BIN with no choice of date or time; in-stock items ship within seven business days counting from the day after you order, and nothing ships on weekends or public holidays. Shipping is free on orders of ¥11,000 or more, otherwise ¥990–¥1,320 depending on the region (¥4,070 to Okinawa). A parcel that comes back undelivered — refused, unclaimed or wrongly addressed — is treated as a cancelled order and the shipping cost is deducted from any refund. In short, it may not reach your inn while you're still there.

For orders from abroad, the shop says to select your country on the product page — if it isn't listed, the shop doesn't currently deliver there — and points to its international shipping page. It adds that the site is intended for customers living in Japan, with overseas orders placed through Global-e under Global-e's terms.

Many character shops sell items you can only get there. Tokyo Character Street says its shops carry street-limited goods, some of them also sold through its online plaza, and several shops on the street advertise Tokyo Station-only items. Kiddy Land announces miffy style-limited items, and Chiikawa has an Okinawa souvenir line, Shisa no Omiyageyasan (シーサーのおみやげやさん), with permanent shops at PARCO CITY in Urasoe and, since 12 August 2026, on the second floor of Naha Airport's international terminal.

Donguri Republic is the shop most likely to cross a ryokan itinerary. Its list includes branches in Kusatsu Onsen (open 9:30–17:30), in Dogo-Yunomachi, the Dogo Onsen district of Matsuyama (9:30–18:00 on most days, later on Wednesdays and Saturdays), and in Karuizawa (10:00–17:30). These close earlier than city malls. If you're staying at an inn in central Kusatsu — our reports put Hotel Ichii and Naraya about five minutes' walk from the Kusatsu Onsen bus terminal — or at a Dogo inn such as Funaya or Yamatoya Honten, a few minutes' walk from Dogo Onsen Station, go shopping before you check in or before dinner rather than after.

If you miss a regional item, searches for ご当地 (gotōchi, 'local edition') on Amazon.co.jp and Rakuten bring up listings too — but check who is selling before you order (see the section on unofficial goods below).

Character goods are also sold on Amazon.co.jp and Rakuten Ichiba, which can deliver while you travel. Amazon says standard delivery usually takes one to four days after dispatch, except in some areas such as remote islands, and shows the expected date before you confirm the order. Popular limited editions may be capped: Amazon may limit how many each customer can order and may cancel orders over the limit. For pre-orders, it doesn't promise release-day delivery unless the product page says so, and a maker can postpone a release — make sure the date falls well inside your stay.

Collecting at a convenience store comes with strict conditions. Amazon delivers to FamilyMart, Lawson and Ministop counters and to Yamato offices only items shipped by Amazon.co.jp, under ¥300,000, no more than 80 cm in total (length + width + height) and no more than 10 kg, and without a delivery date-and-time slot. Parcels are held for four days at a convenience-store counter, three at a FamiLocker, Amazon Locker or PUDO locker, and seven at an Amazon counter or Yamato office, where you need ID matching the name on the order. Rakuten's konbini pickup depends on the shop, doesn't take parcels over 100 cm or 10 kg or orders with a set delivery date or time, and holds parcels for two or three days depending on the chain and carrier. A large plush in its outer carton can exceed these limits.

To have it waiting at your ryokan, ask the inn first. Yamato Transport says it delivers to a hotel or ryokan that is willing to accept the parcel, that some inns restrict where and when you can collect it, and that delivery times can't be specified; when sending to an inn it asks for parcels to go out at least two days before check-in (three for longer distances). Aim for the parcel to arrive the day before you do, and see our guide to delivery to your ryokan for how to address it.

Ichiban Kuji (一番くじ) is BANDAI SPIRITS' character lottery, and its official how-to page explains the routine: take a purchase card from the display to the till (you can also simply buy at the till without one), pay, choose a lottery ticket, peel it open, and receive the prize printed on it there and then. Every ticket wins something. Drawing the shop's last ticket also earns the Last One prize, and a campaign number on each ticket gives a second chance at prizes (Double Chance).

Visitors should note the small print on that second chance: the official site says prizes from its website campaigns are shipped only within Japan, and that taking part requires registering with its member club. What you can count on is the prize you draw at the counter. BANDAI SPIRITS also runs an official online version, Ichiban Kuji ONLINE.

Character plush also turn up as crane-game prizes in arcades, like the Shinjuku machines pictured here.

Rights holders are blunt about fakes. Sanrio's US website says only Sanrio and its authorised licensees may make or sell products featuring its characters' names or images, and that counterfeit 'Sanrio' goods are illegal to possess or redistribute even if you didn't know they were fake — a statement made under US and international law. Pokémon's support centre says fake trading-card booster packs are often very hard to tell from real ones, that a pack priced far below the suggested retail price is a near-certain warning sign, that counterfeit cards are often easy to spot when held up to a bright light, and that the most reports of counterfeit sales it receives come from flea markets.

Fake websites are a separate risk. Kiddy Land has warned of a site posing as the company — using its name, its president's name and its Harajuku store's address — where buyers might never receive their goods or might fall victim to phishing. It says its own online shops are four stores on Yahoo! Shopping. (The Harajuku flagship on Omotesando, pictured, currently opens 11:00–20:00.)

The safest habit is to buy from the official shop or its own online store, and on Amazon.co.jp or Rakuten to check the seller's name and details before ordering. An official shop's guarantees also stop at its own door: Chiikawa Market, for example, doesn't accept returns or exchanges for goods bought anywhere other than its own site, including auction sites.

Plush toys are light but bulky. On ANA international flights, for example, you may take one carry-on bag within 55 × 40 × 25 cm (115 cm in total) and one personal item within 40 × 30 × 20 cm, weighing no more than 10 kg together; other airlines set their own limits. We suggest packing squashable plush in your checked bag, keeping boxed collectibles with you in the cabin, and bringing a compression bag or a foldable spare bag to make room.

On a trip with several stops, don't carry the haul from inn to inn. Yamato's TA-Q-BIN delivers to hotels and ryokan that agree to accept the parcel (send it at least two days before check-in), and its Airport TA-Q-BIN takes bags to major airports: drop them off by two days before departure (three in some areas) and collect them at the airport counter on the day you fly. Parcels over 30 kg aren't accepted, the airport rates include a ¥660 airport fee, and some convenience stores can't send parcels larger than Size 180. If it won't fit at all, Japan Post's EMS sends documents and goods of up to 30 kg to more than 120 countries and territories, with tracking, at rates from ¥1,450.

Plan tax-free purchases around this. For purchases from 1 November 2026, Japan uses a refund system: purchases of ¥5,000 or more (excluding tax) per store per day qualify, limited to what you can personally carry out of Japan, and within 90 days you present your passport at a tax-free terminal in the international departure lobby before checking in your bags. You must have every item from each receipt with you, or nothing on that receipt is refunded — so don't post tax-free goods home, and if a forwarded bag contains them, collect it before you go to the terminal. Kiddy Land's Harajuku store, for one, is a tax-free shop.