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Enjoy Korea's Adorable, Wildly Popular Characters

Tour Seoul’s Character Design·Brand Stores

Fans of the popular mobile messaging apps, KAKAO and LINE, can enjoy their favorite characters online at any time. But fans who would love to experience their favorite KAKAO or LINE characters offline and in person, should make sure to tour 3 of Seoul’s best character design•brand stores. Spend time with animated friends then tour the neighborhooods surrounding the design and brand stores.

Shop for Cool and Quirky LINE Branded Items!

The Itaewon flagship is the world's largest LINE FRIENDS store. The store is three entire floors of LINE FRIENDS, and there is much to see and do here. On the 1st floor, visitors can shop for stationery, toys, and electronic accessories. The 2nd floor offers clothing, accessories, and home living goods. The third floor contains the store's spacious cafe. Additionally, there are fun photo zones located throughout the store and visitors can take photographs to capture their visit to the LINE FRIENDS flagship.

Don't forget to take a photo with the world’s biggest Brown and Sally dolls! They stand 3.3m tall, and they're striking additions to any photograph. The flagship also contains a showroom that displays items featuring all of the beloved LINE FRIENDS characters. The items on display can all be purchased and they are the result of collaborations with many famous international brands. Check out items like LINE FRIENDS figures made by Swarovski, diaries from Moleskine, home living goods by the famed Finnish design company Muurla.

On the 3rd floor, the cafe serves an array of food that features LINE FRIENDS. Order mini pancakes shaped just like Brown's face, as well as cookies, cakes adorned with different LINE characters. Coffee and beer is also on offer here, and the packaging is too cute for words. The bottle cafe latte is a popular menu item, as is the orange smoothie (the orange smoothie is only available when in season). Visitors may want to order a bottled drink, like the bottle cafe latte, in order to take home the glass bottle as a souvenir.

Itaewon is famous for being full of trendy dining spots and cafes. Have a fantastic meal in Itaewon and top everything off with a coffee or dessert.

At Home with Friends : 5 Stories of KAKAO FRIENDS

The KAKAO FRIENDS Hongdae branch was established after the opening of the KAKAO FRIENDS flagship store in Gangnam. This megastore is a full 5 stories of fun! Visitors can find the brand's most popular items displayed on the 1st floor. Continue to the 2nd floor to browse KAKAO branded clothes, accessories, travel, and children's items. The travel item line is a recent addition to the KAKAO brand. Visitors can pick up passport wallet and travel organizers featuring their favorite KAKAO FRIENDS characters. 

The Hongdae store features even more photo zones than the Gangnam flagship, and visitors could spend hours just taking fun and memorable photos with the KAKAO characters. The photo zones are spread throughout the store and each character has a dedicated photo zone. The most popular photo zone may be Ryan's photo zone. The zone features a huge Ryan doll sitting in the store's cafe and the possibilities for a fun photo are limitless. The Hongdae branch is also home to the Seoul KAKAO FRIENDS Concept Museum, located on the B1 and B2 levels. At the concept museum, visitors will be able to see the characters as imagined in their youth, details on the characters' personalities, and behind-the-scenes stories of KAKAO FRIENDS.

Hongdae is known for as a youthful, vibrant place, thanks to the many universities in the area. Due to the huge numbers of students, there are many tasty, yet low-priced eateries in the area.

Design Goods for Everyday Living

HOTTRACKS is located at Gwanghwamun, within the Kyobo Bookstore (Korea's largest bookstore chain). HOTTRACKS offers a wide range of items such as stationery, fashion items, music, and much more. The items at this store have a focus on well-made designs, but there's more to see than design goods! Shoppers can shop for art supplies, high-end pen and writing sets, accessories, and home living goods. There are also travel goods such as organizers and bags. 

Shoppers can browse goods from famous Korean design companies such as Morning Glory (known for their stationery goods) and Jetoy (famous for its cat characters). Visitors should also make sure to stop by ARTBOX, located on the same floor as HOTTRACKS, in order to get a dose of cute stationery and office supplies. Afterwards, browse the Korean and foreign book selection at Kyobo or take a break amongst the books. There is enough seating for over 100 people at Kyobo. Visitors in need of refreshments can also stop by the store's cafe or restaurant.

Thanks to the concentration of office buildings in the Gwanghwamun area, there is also an abundance of incredible restaurants here. There are a number of restaurants serving Korean cuisine to enjoy in Gwanghwamun.