KiddyLand, cute & fun character toys!
Posted by: kirin on 
May 30th, 2009 | 
Filed under: Kawaii Shop★for those in love with character toys★
KiddyLand Harajuku
address: Jingumae 6-1-9 Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001
phone: 03-3409-3431
open: mon.-fri. 10:30am-9:00pm/sat. sun. holiday 10:00am-9:00pm
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KiddyLand is a famous spot for tourists in Tokyo. Let alone, it’s popular among young Japanese boys, girls, and even young adults and some character manias. As you might be familiar to this fact that in Japan, even grown up adults tend to like cute characters. It’s not regarded strange or childish even if a man at the age of 20 something carries a little Rilakkuma (small bear soft toy) strap with his mobile phone.
So, KiddyLand is such a lovely place to shop or even just to browse. It’s so famous that you may be able to find it in your guidebook. It’s fun if you or your kids like character toys. The entire building is the KiddyLand store in Harajuku, and you can skip some floors that sell characters you don’t like, and go straight to the aimed objects if you don’t have much time to look around. Here are some samples of character toys. Domokun is an original character that Japanese TV network “NHK” produced to promote themselves. This is the good example to illustrate that even corporations use cute characters very often to promote themselves with familiar images in Japan. Let’s say you try to open an account at a bank, you will get a passbook with some famous characters printed, which is quite normal in Japan. (Japanese banks do not send statement each month and instead, you have to go to your bank to get the passbook printed with transactions details.) In other words, it’s true there are people who decide which bank to open an account just based on which character is used for the bank. Same things can be said to credit card, or anything. So it’s not too much to say that Japanese people are living with characters everywhere. You may still feel absurd with these character toys, but once you find something in your taste, you’ll see how fun it is. :p |
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The first photo is Gachapin & Mukku. I found a funny video. Although image is low quality, you can laugh. 
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May 30th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
DOMO-KUN!! xD
I wanna go there now and grab one!
June 1st, 2009 at 1:45 am
wow! I'll definately go there!
Thank you for your tip about sending parcels back home!
June 1st, 2009 at 4:53 am
the cute thing is always amazed everyone right…although that person maybe already 30 something…huehehe
hi Kirin, long time not coming here…=)
June 1st, 2009 at 11:30 am
Domokun has become so popular by now. He's become an internationally famous character.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:32 am
Sure! Enjoy shopping and dining while you're in Japan! Ah~ I wanna travel abroad…:p
June 1st, 2009 at 11:35 am
Hi mei, thank you for dropping by.
You can always come back and join the conversation.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Come and visit Perth one day~ It's a very small city though ^^"
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
OMG! You're from Perth, Australia? I was there about 8-9 years ago with working holiday visa. (Do you know that visa being only available for those under age 30 or something and valid between Japan – Korea – Austaralia – NZ – Canada – U.K – France – Germany…?)
I LOVED PERTH! I flew to Sydney first and was working there, but then I traveled to Melbourne up to Cairns. It's such a beautiful country with a lot of fun travelling experience to me! I stayed at a backpacker hotel called 12:01 (twelve o one) in Perth and used red cat or blue cat bus to the city. (They were free bus, are they still there?) I then moved to Fremantle to support Japanese guests at a backpacker hotel in exchange for free accommodation.
I especially liked Melbourne and Perth, rather than Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin, and Cairns. I didn't stay at Brisbane and Tasmania, so if possible I want to go there next time. I really really miss that time~! I have a photo of myself working in a souvenir shop in Cairns in my About page!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 am
Ohh! Cool!!
Perth is a small city but I like the relaxed life here~ And yes the blue cat and red cat are still here and running free 
All the buses are free of charge if you travel within the city~ Wow I never knew you been here before 
I never heard of the backpackers hotel though cuz I never really looked into it but Perth is pretty much the same as 8~9 yrs ago just a bit more city like with new buildings and a train line to Mandurah 
Fremantle is also pretty much the same~ ^_^
June 4th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Cute shop<3
June 7th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Ohh~ blue cat and red cat are still there and still free?! The city is pretty much the same as 8~9 years? Really? I do miss those days…Thank you for your further comment. You live in such a beautiful city!!
April 1st, 2011 at 8:45 am
Hi, your web site is great! I have just opened a small Kawaii gift shop in Tasmania, Australia called world of Kawaii gifts and I also sell my craft there too, it has been hard to find suppliers for Kawaii goodies, but I'm getting there. They either don't send to Australia or their web pages are in Japanese glad yours is in English!
I have also found that Domo sells really well here!!!
Belinda
April 1st, 2011 at 9:06 am
Hi Belinda,
Thank you for your comment!
I'm glad you deal with kawaii goods in Australia. I hope people in the world realize that kawaii makes them happy, it's not something only for kids. I sometimes try to help international shop owners from Japan, although I'm not a supplier myself. http://tokyokawaiietc.com/hire-me Please contact me if you think I could help you in the future.
Good luck for your kawaii gift shop!! Yay!! ^ ^
April 13th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
This shop is almost a reason alone to visit Japan. Love it so much!
August 4th, 2011 at 3:50 am
Dude, please tell me that youre going to publish more”
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