Square Enix store Tokyo - In defense of buying merch as an adult

(A nerd's Tokyo shopping guide)

November 14, 2025

I took a weekend trip to Tokyo for my birthday recently and was determined to bury my annual birthday gloom in a ton of shopping.

Now, for most women of my (wipes a tear) age, profession, and general life-standing, that would most likely entail hitting the mean streets of Ginza with a vengeance and going to Dior or Louis Vuitton or the lovely, organized department stores that are basically everywhere and do sell a lot of very pretty things like colorful fluffy sweaters and traditional Japanese-lacquer candy bowls that cost as much as a car.

But being who I am and luckily having an extremely long-suffering and understanding husband (nobody tell him I said that), once I arrived at my hotel at 10 PM on the Friday, I put on my fluffy bathrobe, my face creams, plopped myself into bed, and googled the following two-day itinerary (the following are my actual search queries):

Saturday:

1.        Biggest Pokemon store in Tokyo

2.        Pokemon Café in Tokyo (note: it was already fully booked… my husband later told me that reservations need to be made literally months in advance - the very fact that he, a real adult and not a pretend one like myself, had looked into it for me gave me butterflies... - no one tell him I said that)

3.        Square Enix store in Tokyo

4.        Official Sailor Moon store in Tokyo

Sunday:

[To be determined based on how Saturday Shopping goes]

By the way I do not recommend this itinerary for first-timers to Tokyo. I have been before and so have already seen all the usual sights, so this trip was for target shopping, not general wandering around.

And so, bright and early on Saturday morning, I banged around the hotel room until my husband woke up, and then stepped into the rainiest Saturday I have ever spent in Tokyo (I’ve never been in October) to heal my inner child with the best day she could have ever dreamt of.

First off, the biggest Pokemon store in Tokyo in Nihombashi.

As we walked there and went up to the fifth store of the department store it was located in, it occurred to me that I had actually been there before, having snuck away during one trip with friends when I was in my twenties. Of course, at the time, I went just to be able to see it, but I hadn’t purchased anything as I had very little shopping money and didn’t want my friends to see that I had purchased anything from there.

This time, however, I was determined to absolutely knock myself out with Pokemons galore.

Or so I thought until I saw the line to the Pokemon store, which would take at least an hour to get through. I realized we had chosen what was obviously the absolute worst day to go the biggest Pokemon store in Tokyo, which was a Saturday morning when all the kiddos are out of school. There was no way I was going to waste my precious Saturday lining up to go to what was essentially a Pokemon store when there are Pokemon stores everywhere, and so off we went to the next stop in the itinerary.

Google led us to “Square Enix Gardens” in Shibuya.

This was what I was really excited for. Square Enix Gardens is apparently the “flagship” Square Enix merch store, and I had never been before. My inner child was beyond stoked. I was about to go to this gamer's mecca with actual money in my pocket and I was going to let myself go absolutely nuts. I wanted to see all the merch and buy loads of random stuff! I imagined something like a Final Fantasy Disneyland with Moogles galore and Kingdom Hearts things everywhere.

So we arrived at “Shibuya Sakura Stage”, which is the building that Google informed me Square Enix Gardens is located. I stepped out of the taxi and into the rain and eagerly looked up.

And saw just a regular ol’ building.

What the hell. Where was it?

I kid you not, my husband and I spent twenty minutes looking for “Square Enix Gardens”, which Google said was on the first floor. I was just plain confused. This was supposed to be the Square Enix flagship store. Where was the queue to get in? How could the Google directions be wrong? (it later turns out that Google had the wrong floor). The sign on the first floor on the building didn’t have the name “Square Enix Gardens" anywhere on it, which started a growing pit of uncertainty in my stomach as to whether or not I was really about to see "Final Fantasy Disneyland".

Finally, after looking up the directions on the Square Enix website (it is on the 3^rd floor, by the way), we saw some signs, both literal (a sign that said SQUARE ENIX GARDENS) and metaphorical (a trail of a few grown men who were obviously tourists and looking for something in particular), that led us to the right place.

When we finally arrived, I was both thrilled and disappointed.

So yes, it is stuffed full of merch that I had never seen before and I wanted everything in sight, just like I thought I would.

But I had expected so much more from the “flagship” Square Enix store with the grand name “Square Enix Gardens”. It was not, as I expected, a Square Enix Disneyland. It was more like a medium museum giftshop, and it made me sad to think that I have seen museum giftshops that were bigger than this.

And now that I think about it some more, it's an apt comparison because it was basically a museum a beloved IP… I guess.

Setting my disappointment aside, I still had some shopping to do! So I grabbed a basket and proceeded to spend the next few minutes (my husband later informed me it was about an hour) filling it with actual Square Enix-official merchandise. These are some of the things I bought for myself and as presents for friends and family:

I love them so much. I had actually forgotten that Square Enix made Dragon Quest, too! And I loved Dragon Quest XI, so I had to have a cute little slime which reminded me so much of my happy hours playing that world.

To be honest, I didn’t think much of most of the Kingdom Hearts merch, and passed over the notebooks that didn’t look like they had anything to do with the series, and some lame keychains. I was tempted by some silicone ice molds that would make ice into the form of a Keyblade!!! but decided not to partake as I am generally too lazy to put ice in my water.

I did however buy myself one of the Shadow Monsters stuffed toys (see above), because damned if it doesn’t really look like one of the ubiquitous shadow monsters that Sora has to hack and slash with his Keyblade! I had to have it. And then, after much perusing, I bought myself this little purse:

Because entering the Winnie the Pooh book in Kingdom Hearts II is one of the most, unique, magical, and memorable parts of not just that game but the entirety of my childhood gaming existence, as I wrote about here. I find the design on the purse so evocative of the Kingdom Hearts II magic, sweet and powerfully nostalgic. It's also one of those things that outsiders will not understand if they see my coin purse. You have to be a fellow fan. If you know, you know.

I also bought a Moogle T-shirt and searched in vain for a Moogle plushie, but the ones in the store did not look like a real Moogle, to be honest. I decided to wait for better days and moved on.

I threw in the Aerith doll (pictured above) for a friend, and then while browsing the Final Fantasy aisle, stopped and stared at this:

Vivi, is, for me, the most iconic Final Fantasy character. Whenever I see him I am transported back to the many hours I spent playing that amazing game. Was this giant box with a breakable ceramic inside worth the hassle of handcarrying back home? Absolutely! And the mug, which I fully intended to use for my morning coffee, is now sitting next to my coffee machine, still in its box, still untouched. I decided it was too precious to ever use. If it broke while washing, I would be devastated.

So I came out of Square Enix Gardens pretty thrilled, actually, and ready for the next phase of shopping: the Sailor Moon store.

This is actually walking distance from Square Enix Gardens, but again, is in the basement of some building in Harajuku that is clearly dedicated to other things. Now however, my expectations were managed – Sailor Moon being an even older IP, it was going to be an even littler store with fewer things.

And true enough, I arrived at what was now a decidedly small museum gift shop. I still bought myself a few things, however, my favorite being this:

because doesn't it look just like a prop from the series? I consider myself a very discriminating merch shopper, by the way. Only the best will do.

I also contemplated buying what is obviously the best merch in the store, the Sailor Moon wand. I paused in front of it, behind two older gay guys who were clearly doing the same thing. In the end, I decided not to... because I felt like I had already spent too much money that day purchasing everything else I wanted, and also because, well, for me, that would have been the last thing I would ever have bought from the Sailor Moon official store. I would have nothing to look forward to if I ever made future trips to that store. But now, I will always have the anticipation of buying the wand and relishing the thought of the future day when I will see it gleaming on my shelf together with all my other merch.

I guess a part of me didn’t want to completely close out my inner-child-healing shopping trip. That childhood feeling about being excited about characters and stories and gazing wistfully through a glass store window at all the figurines, toys, and other merch that you can’t have has become such a big part of me that I don’t want to let go. It has become bundled up in my excitement over discovering new video game worlds and my love for Fantasy.

I never went to Tokyo as a child, and except for birthdays and Christmas, I would never have asked my parents for a random shopping trip to spend the kind of money for the merch I can afford to buy now. This type of luxury didn’t even cross my mind growing up, as I was fully aware of my parents’ financial limitations. And I think that’s okay. Maybe even healthy. These things I bought on this trip are all the more precious for the years I spent waiting for them. They remind me of the child I used to be, the part of me that I want my kids to still be able to see.

And now I suppose we (after a long digression) come to the reason I titled this blog post – "In defense of buying merch as an adult". Looking at the damage to my credit card at the end of this trip, I have to ask myself why? Why did I just spend an absurd amount of money for things that were most likely mass-produced in China? Did I really need a red Sailor Mars wand keychain that cost (tries to convert yen amount into local currency in head) well, basically way more than it should have?

The answer is yes.

I go back to what I said about Square Enix Gardens and the Sailor Moon official store reminding me of museum giftshops. It is, sadly, an accurate description, because a lot of the beloved Square Enix and Sailor Moon IP is from shows and video games whose heyday was decades ago. Sure, there are a few resurgences and re-promotes - I saw that Sailor Moon was recently on Netflix for example, thank you Netflix - and of course the Final Fantasy VII remakes. But there is no denying that the stores are homages to things long past, to history, to childhood stories and characters from way back when.

And so the question is, what can we, the adult-credit card wielding-nerd demographic, do to keep this beloved IP alive, to hopefully continue to delight us and future generations? Well, I think buying all this merch is one way of showing support for IP that these companies might otherwise think is no longer appreciated (i.e. profitable). I am certain somewhere, somehow, a Japanese AI is looking at the sales of Kingdom Hearts shadow monster plushies and going – beep boop beep - hey, people are still buying these. People still love Kingdom Hearts. Let’s hurry up with Kingdom Hearts IV! Or (what bliss) let’s remake Kingdom Hearts I and II!!!!! People still love the IP! People will still buy it! People would make their kids play it!

I for sure would! How can, whatever, Fortnite or Bluey or whatever lame excuse for games and shows children nowadays are plagued with, compare to growing up with Sailor Moon the fighting moon princess or going on the incredible adventure that Final Fantasy IX took us on?? If my kids ever want to play video games, they are going to go through the Square Enix catalogue before anything else. Because I still firmly believe that video games are not just to pass the time. They are for going on adventures and discovering new worlds and stories. They are a deep, virtual dive into Science Fiction and Fantasy and are an indelible part of discovering the love for that genre.

I leave with this happy thought - perhaps, someday, if enough adults buy enough merch from these museum giftshops to beloved old IPs, and Square Enix rolls another remake or, if we're lucky, Kingdom Hearts IV or a new Dragon Quest of the caliber of Dragon Quest XI, we will one day see actual children (and not just grumpy old aunties and middle-aged German tourists) lining up to buy orange slime toys and Shadow Monster plushies, too.

square enix store tokyo, sailor moon store tokyo