Where Are Seoul's Character Shops?

Watch the bags on any Seoul subway car for a minute and you'll count the keyrings: a Ryan, a Brown bear, a Chiikawa hanging from a zipper. A character shop is where those come from, a store run by or for a character brand that sells its plush toys, keyrings, stationery and seasonal collaborations, often with a photo zone or a themed corner that changes with each new line. In Seoul they aren't spread evenly across the city. They cluster in four neighborhoods, each on a subway line you'll probably ride anyway.

Store details were checked against official store pages and the shops' own announcements in late October 2026. Hours and themed displays change with each launch, so it's worth a look at a shop's official Instagram the night before.

If you're staying near Seoul Station, think of it as a starting point rather than a shopping stop. Two stops on Line 1 take you to Yongsan for the Chiikawa Shop, two stops on Line 4 bring you to Myeongdong, and the Airport Railroad reaches Hongik University Station in two stops as well. Lotte World Mall sits at the other end of Line 2 and works best as its own half day, perhaps with the capsule machines on the second floor that our guide to Seoul's gacha shops walks through.

Kakao Friends: Why Hongdae Is the One to Visit

Kakao Friends are the characters of KakaoTalk, the messaging app nearly everyone in Korea uses, so you've likely met them before you land: Ryan, the maneless lion; Apeach, the cheeky peach; and Choonsik, the round little cat who has become Ryan's sidekick. Ryan turned ten in 2026, and Kakao is running a "10 Years Together" campaign through the end of the year.

The Hongdae flagship is the store to make the trip for. It fills three floors near Hongik University Station and is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. What sets it apart is that Kakao uses it as a stage. Every big launch gets its own corner: for the spring "Chunsusan" line the store was dressed as a fish market, with a keyring-fishing tank and a tiny raw-fish restaurant photo spot, and for the Harry Potter collaboration that launched on October 16, 2026, it set up a Hogwarts-style banquet photo zone with Choonsik and friends in house colors. The flagship also tends to carry a line in full when other branches carry only part of it. During this year's baseball season, for example, Hongdae stocked the collaboration goods for all ten KBO teams, while department-store branches focused on their local team.

Not everything is in the store, though. For the Harry Potter line, the house keyring plushies and the complete random-figure set were sold only through Kakao Friends' own online shop, so buy what you can in person and expect the rest online.

The Starfield COEX Mall branch, on the B1 floor beside Samseong Station, is the practical option if you're in Gangnam for the Starfield Library or the aquarium. It is smaller, without the themed floors, but the everyday plush and stationery are all there. The large Gangnam flagship that older guides mention is no longer operating, so COEX is the easier Kakao stop on that side of the river.

LINE FRIENDS SQUARE and K-POP SQUARE

LINE FRIENDS began as the sticker characters of the LINE messenger, which is why so many visitors from Japan and Taiwan recognize Brown the bear and Sally the duck on sight. The brand is now run by IPX, and its Seoul shops have grown into something broader: the characters sit next to BT21, the cast created with BTS, and minini, the small, round versions of the original crew.

LINE FRIENDS SQUARE Myeongdong is the one most visitors find first. It fills the first two floors of a corner building on Myeongdong-gil, about 320 meters from Myeongdong Station Exit 6, and is open every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The giant screen over the entrance makes it easy to spot from down the street, and the rest of Myeongdong's shopping is right outside.

IPX also runs two shops under the K-POP SQUARE name. K-POP SQUARE Hongdae, about 150 meters from Hongik University Station Exit 1 and open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., replaced the old LINE FRIENDS flagship in Hongdae in June 2025 and mixes character goods with K-pop artist merchandise and frequent pop-ups. K-POP SQUARE Lotte World Mall, on the B1 floor in Jamsil, opens daily from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. If your list has both a BT21 keyring and an idol photocard on it, these are the places to cover both at once.

Where Do Sanrio and Chiikawa Fans Go?

Seoul doesn't have one large Sanrio store. Instead, individual characters have their own theme cafes, each run separately, and each with a goods corner. The two easiest to fit into a trip are the Hello Kitty Apple Cafe in Myeongdong, which opened in February 2025 with cafe seating on the first two floors and a gift shop on the third, and the My Melody Harmony Cafe on the B1 floor of Lotte World Mall, where the goods area can be browsed without ordering, though some items are stocked in limited numbers each day. Both work on walk-in waiting rather than advance booking, so arrive early on weekends.

Chiikawa is a different story, with one store and a lot of people who want to get in. The Chiikawa Shop opened on February 27, 2026, as Korea's first permanent store for the characters, on the third floor of IPARK Mall's Living Park at Yongsan Station. It opens at 10:30 a.m., entry runs on an on-site waitlist with hourly limits, and since Chiikawa the Movie opened in Korean cinemas at the end of September the day's registration has often closed by lunchtime. Popular items are limited to one per person. The shop also switches to Naver reservations only during some busy stretches, and November 8 is the last day of the current reservation-only period; our guide to the Chiikawa Shop waitlist and Naver booking covers both.

While you're at IPARK Mall, the rest of the Dopamine Station character zone on the same floor is worth a wander, and Pokémon Korea runs its official card shop elsewhere in the mall. If Japanese characters are your thing, the Crayon Shin-chan exhibition in Seongsu, with its own goods shop, runs until January 2027. For smaller things like stickers and keyrings by Korean illustrators, Seoul's stationery shops are the natural next stop.