Pokémon Center Tokyo DX and Sanrioworld Ginza: Free to Browse, What Actually Costs Money
Pokémon Center Tokyo DX and Sanrioworld Ginza cost nothing to enter. Real hours, real Pokémon Cafe menu prices, and the one thing that's actually bookable.
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Ginza and neighboring Nihombashi are two of the most expensive pieces of real estate in Tokyo, department stores and flagship luxury boutiques on nearly every block. In the middle of all that sit two of the city’s biggest character stores, Pokémon Center Tokyo DX and Sanrioworld Ginza, and neither one charges admission. We’ve visited both across a couple of trips, October 2023 for Pokémon Center, June 2024 and again in September 2025 for Sanrio, and walking in costs exactly nothing either time.
Pokémon Center Tokyo DX: free to enter, easy to spend inside
The store sits on the 5th floor of the Nihombashi Takashimaya S.C. East Building, open daily 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., no ticket or reservation needed to walk in and browse the full wall of plush, cards, and Tokyo DX exclusive merchandise. Prices on individual items vary a lot depending on the character and the line, a keychain is nothing like a full-size plush, so there’s no single number that describes what “a trip to the Pokémon Center” costs, only that it’s easy to walk out having spent more than you planned.
What makes the DX location worth the trip specifically, rather than any Pokémon Center, is the exclusive lineup. Tokyo DX has carried its own limited character designs found nowhere else, Pikachu dressed as a sumo wrestler, a kabuki performer, a ninja, tied to Tokyo and Japanese culture rather than the generic merchandise every location carries. Stock rotates and sells out, so there’s no guarantee a specific design is there the day you visit, but it’s the reason this location gets its own trip rather than settling for whichever Pokémon Center is closest to your hotel.
Pokémon Cafe: the actual bookable part
Right on the same floor is the Pokémon Cafe, the only Pokémon themed cafe in the Kanto region, and this is where a real cost shows up. It requires an online reservation, seats don’t happen by walking up, and the reservation itself just holds your table, food and drinks are paid separately once you’re seated. Real menu prices as of this writing: the Pikachu Souffle Pancake runs about 2,090 yen, Energetic Pikachu Curry about 1,598 yen, Pikachu’s Yokubari Plate about 1,706 yen, and drinks like apple juice or cola around 715 yen. Most people land somewhere between 2,500 and 5,000 yen per person once food, a drink, and a themed dessert are on the table.
Pokémon Cafe reservation
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Klook code: ADAMANDLINDSKLOOK
Click through to Klook below, then enter code ADAMANDLINDSKLOOK at checkout. This is a real affiliate code, we may earn a commission on the booking too, at no extra cost to you. See our legal notice.
10% off, New Klook user
$50 minimum spend, capped at $50 off, one time use. Valid through December 31, 2026.
3% off, Existing Klook user
$50 minimum spend, capped at $50 off, up to three uses. Valid through December 31, 2026.
1% off, Selected things to do and mobility, including teamLab Planets TOKYO, teamLab Borderless, teamLab Biovortex Kyoto, Japan Shinkansen tickets, SHIBUYA SKY, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo, and Osaka Amazing Pass
No stated minimum spend for this tier. Valid through December 31, 2026.
50% off, eSIM, new eSIM customers only
No minimum spend, capped at $1.50 saved, one time use. Valid through December 31, 2026.
The reservation fee alone likely won’t clear the $50 cart minimum for the code’s general tiers, but pair it with a second Klook booking in the same cart and it’s worth entering.
Sanrioworld Ginza: the other free stop, a short walk away
A short walk from Ginza and Yurakucho stations, on the first and second floors of the Nishi Ginza building, Sanrioworld Ginza is one of the largest Sanrio stores anywhere, open 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., also free to walk into. Like the Pokémon Center, there’s no fixed price to quote, merchandise ranges from small accessories to full character setups, and the honest advice is the same: browsing costs nothing, but it’s not designed to leave you empty-handed.
Doing both in one day
Nihombashi and Ginza sit close enough together that both stops fit into a single afternoon without much transit in between. Pokémon Center Tokyo DX is a five minute walk from Tokyo Station’s Yaesu North exit or four minutes from Nihombashi Station on the Ginza or Tozai subway lines, and Sanrioworld Ginza is a three minute walk from Ginza Station or reachable from JR Yurakucho Station. Either a short walk between the two or one quick subway hop covers the gap, easy to string together without burning much of the day on transit. Neither charges to get in the door, so the actual day’s budget comes down entirely to what ends up in the shopping bag and whether you book the Pokémon Cafe table.
Was it worth it
Both trips, yes, and for the same reason: free entry to a genuinely well done, character-dense space is rare in a neighborhood built around luxury storefronts we’d never otherwise walk into. We didn’t need to buy anything at either store for the stop to feel worthwhile, though we won’t pretend we walked out empty-handed either time.
