Feature
Character Cafes in Tokyo You Can Visit Any Time
Character-face bread, game-world interiors and maid cafes. Permanent spots I sorted by mood.
- Cafes
- Characters
- Photo-friendly
Limited-time collaboration cafes often do not line up with your travel dates. So for this feature I stuck to permanent character cafes and sweets counters 🐯
There are character sweets you can carry as you walk, cafes that pull you into a game world, Ikebukuro cafes whose featured titles keep rotating, and Akihabara's maid cafes. Choose by mood, and spend one meal or snack break with your favorite characters ✨
Character Sweets to Carry With You
Even on a day with no time to sit down, takeaway counters are easy to fit in. In Harajuku, Ikebukuro and Tokyo Station you can pick up breads and sweets shaped like the characters themselves.
Chiikawa Bakery
Food · Harajuku
The permanent Chiikawa bakery in Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Omokado, with breads shaped like the faces of Chiikawa, Hachiware and Usagi, cookie sandwiches and exclusive merchandise.
Free entry
SANRIO CAFE Harajuku
Food · Harajuku
Sanrio's permanent official cafe in Takeshita-dori Square, where the menu includes character-shaped dishes such as the Hello Kitty strawberry parfait.
Free entry
Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe
Food · Ikebukuro
A mainly takeaway counter on the same floor as Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo, serving Pikachu-themed drinks and desserts.
Price unknown
Kirby Cafe PETIT Tokyo Station
Food · Tokyo Station & Marunouchi
A takeout sweets stand themed on the Kirby series, selling Kirby-shaped tarts and cakes alongside merchandise.
Free entry
Cafes That Pull You Into a Game World
Some cafes turn the room itself into a game setting. In Akihabara you can eat aboard an airship or in a hunters' gathering hall, and in Ikebukuro inside the world of a mobile game.
Grandcypher Kitchen
Food · Akihabara
A permanent Granblue Fantasy cafe whose interior recreates the airship Grandcypher. Dishes are modelled on Vyrn and other characters, and seasonal menus rotate in.
Free entryHunters Bar — Monster Hunter Izakaya, Tokyo Akihabara
Food · Akihabara
The official permanent Monster Hunter restaurant, styled after a hunters' gathering hall, serving dishes and drinks modelled on the games' ingredients and monsters.
Price unknown
#Compass Cafe in Ikebukuro
Food · Ikebukuro
A permanent cafe built around the mobile game #Compass, with more than twenty menu items themed on its heroes and a corner of original goods.
Free entry
Ikebukuro: Cafes Where the Titles Rotate
Ikebukuro gathers cafes that are permanent in themselves but keep changing the titles and menus they feature. Which characters you meet depends on when you visit, which is part of the fun.
Chiikawa Restaurant (THE GUEST cafe&diner Ikebukuro PARCO)
Food · Ikebukuro
The permanent Chiikawa restaurant in Ikebukuro PARCO, serving dishes modelled on the manga, with a menu and giveaway art that rotate each season.
Free entry
Animate Gratte Animate-dori
Food · Ikebukuro
An Animate-run cafe serving Gratte lattes printed with character art, on the street beside the Animate Ikebukuro flagship. The featured titles rotate throughout the year.
Free entry
ufotable CHARACTERS Cafe IKEBUKURO
Food · Ikebukuro
The flagship cafe that studio ufotable opened in Ikebukuro. New illustrations are released every month, centered on ufotable titles such as Demon Slayer.
Price unknown
Akihabara: The Classic Maid Cafe Experience
Plenty of visitors want to try a maid cafe at least once while in Akihabara. I picked long-running cafes, including ones that served as models for anime settings.
Cure Maid Cafe
Food · Akihabara
Said to have opened in 2001, this maid cafe is known for its calm, classical interior. It is the model for the cafe where Kotori Minami works as Minalinsky in Love Live!
Price unknown
@home cafe Akihabara Donki Store
Food · Akihabara
A main branch of @home cafe, a well-known name among Akihabara maid cafes, offering the classic experience of ketchup art on omurice and instant photos with the maids.
Price unknownCafe Mai:lish
Food · Akihabara
A long-running maid cafe opened in 2004, identified as the model for MayQueen+Nyan2, where Mayuri and Faris work in STEINS;GATE. Fans can sit down inside and soak up the atmosphere.
Free entry
Do this route
Two Days of Character Cafes
This is how I'd go around them! Add them all to a trip and change anything you like later 🧳
Once you spot a cafe for a character you love, add that one to your trip first 🧳 It turns an ordinary day of walking around into a day of visiting your favorites.
