Shinjuku (新宿区 Shinjuku-ku, "New Lodge") is one of the busiest city districts in Tokyo, Japan.
Located within the center of the city's business district, Shinjuku is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the busiest train station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (the administration centre for the government of Tokyo).
District Areas[]
The district is split into three major areas; Shinjuku Street, the Kabuki-cho district and the area on west side of Shinjuku station.
Shinjuku Street is a shopping area lined with large department stores, fashionable specialty shops, restaurants and bars. A network of six narrow alleys within the district are known as the Golden Gai. Golden Gai was a center the avant garde art scene in the 1960s, featuring dozens of little bars ensconced into spaces formally occupied by brothels. Now a well known meeting place for musicians, artists, directors, writers, academics and actors, many of the bars only welcome regular customers, who initially should be introduced by an existing patron.
The Kabuki-cho district is regarded as Tokyo's largest entertainment district and is the center of the city's sex industry and red light district. Lining the district are sex clubs, hostess bars, image rooms, bunny-suit clad streetwalkers, strip clubs, gambling parlors, peep shows, "soaplands" parlors, and bars with nude waitresses.
Originally a residential district until is was redeveloped after World War II, Kabukicho was the center of Tokyo street life and culture in the 1960s and 70s, when it attracted drag queen geishas, rockabilly rent boys, prostitutes and yakuza gangsters. The district's name came from the late-1940s when plans to build a kabuki theater in the area were made: although the theater was never built, the name stuck.
The area west of Shinjuku Station is home to Tokyo's largest concentration of skyscrapers. Several of the tallest buildings in Tokyo are located in this area, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, KDDI Building, the Gakuen Cocoon Tower and Park Tower.
Gallery[]
Other Appearances[]
A.I. Love You[]
- Main Article: Shinjuku
Trivia[]
- Shinjuku Station serves as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between central Tokyo and its western suburbs and is used by an average of 3.64 million people per day, making it the world's busiest transport hub. The station has 36 platforms and an underground arcade with well over 200 exits.
- In the Edo Period, Shinjuku was where people parked their carts and animals and was known for its large amounts of horse dung.
- Beneath the district's streets exists a prominent underground shopping arcade (dubbed the "Subnade") that threads underneath the district's multi-story buildings and busy streets.