From Wikitravel

Shinjuku (新宿) is a major district of Tokyo for work or play.

Contents 1 Understand 2 Get in 2.1 By train 2.2 By bus 3 See 4 Do 5 Buy 6 Eat 6.1 Budget 6.2 Mid-range 6.3 Splurge 7 Drink 7.1 Pubs and taverns 7.2 Clubs 8 Sleep 8.1 Budget 8.2 Mid-range 8.3 Splurge 8.4 Rentals 9 Contact

Understand

The west side of Shinjuku, a seismically stable area that escaped the last earthquake with nary a scratch, is Tokyo's skyscraper district featuring (among others) the gargantuan Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices. Microsoft has a major office (with an imposing sign) just across the street from the south exit of the station.

The east side of Shinjuku is devoted to shopping and nightlife, including Tokyo's largest red-light district Kabukicho (歌舞伎町) and gay nightlife central Shinjuku ni-chome (新宿２丁目).

Nearby Ōkubo (大久保), one stop west of Shinjuku on the Chuo line (also Shin-Ōkubo, on the Yamanote), has many Korean-owned restaurants and grocery stores. Takadanobaba　(高田馬場), another stop past Shin-Okubo, is popular with students from nearby Waseda University.

Get in

By train

Train is the obvious option for arrival, as Shinjuku Station is on the JR Yamanote, Chuo, Sobu, and Saikyo lines. The Keio and Odakyu private railways stop here as well. If that isn't enough there are the Metro Marunouchi, Toei Shinjuku and Toei O-Edo lines here as well. By some measures this is the busiest railway station in the world; try to board the Marunouchi towards Tokyo Station at 8 AM on a Monday morning if you doubt this. The station itself is a sight in itself, effectively forming a giant 3-dimentional warren of numerous shopping malls, restaurants, department stores, railway facilities and underground shopping malls which radiate out for miles under surrounding areas.

There is also Narita Express train and limousine bus service to and from Narita Airport.

By bus

Not a few highway buses for points throughout Japan depart from the bus station near the west exit (opposite Yodobashi), most notably those heading to Mt. Fuji.

See

• Tokyo Metropolitan Government Center (都庁 Tochō). 2-8-1 Nishi-Shinjuku (Metro Tochōmae E-28), [1]. This giant hive of bureaucracy is an Orwellian architectural masterpiece designed by noted architect Kenzo Tange. The reason to come here, though, is the observatories, at a height of 202 meters on the 45th floor, which have Tokyo's best views — and they're completely free. The North Observatory is open daily from 9:30 AM to 11:00 PM (closed second and fourth Mondays of each month), while the South Observatory is open daily from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM (until 11:00 PM on the days the North Observatory is closed; closed on the first and third Tuesdays of each month). Last entry is 30 minutes before closing.
• The gigantic tower resembling a granite Empire State Building, south of the station, is owned by NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest cell-phone carrier. The upper part of the buiding is mobile communication base station. Some call the building DoCoMo Tower
• Shinjuku Gyoen (新宿御苑). [2]. A large public garden, and one of the most popular places for viewing cherry blossoms in the spring. It has an English garden, a Taiwanese teahouse, and a botanical conservatory. It's a ten-minute walk east from JR Shinjuku station.
• For people watching, the place to be is the large square in front of the station's Kabukicho entrance, next to the Studio Alta shopping center.
• Hanazono Shrine (花園神社). Kabukicho (off Yasukuni-dori). More remarkable for its location than its appearance, but it's a nice place to take a breather. There's often a flea market in the surrounding park on weekends.
• Southern Terrace This walkway located across from the South Exit and next to the South Terrace exit offers a magnificent view of the Takashimaya depatment store and a bridge that offers the best views for watching the trains enter and exit Shinjuku Station.
• Tokyo Opera City is a skyscraper with a shopping center and art museum that often has interesting multimedia exhibits. Take the Shinjuku Line subway to Hatsudai station.
• Shinjuku san-chome and related red-light districts to the east of the station. It is perfectly harmless to walk around these during the day and marvel at the billboards of photo billboards of various male and female escorts on offer as well as the live gangster-types acting shady. While walking around this area should probably not be done with children, for adults the result is far more "cultural interest" than sleaze.

Do

Buy

The major department stores all have branches here, most of them along the wide Shinjuku-Dori avenue on the east side.

• On the south side, Tokyu Hands is a fun store for hobbies, decorating stuff, and gifts. Takashimaya department store is also here.
• If you need foreign language books, there are two branches of Kinokuniya in Shinjuku; the newer, larger branch is just south of Tokyu Hands, and the older one is on Shinjuku-Dori.
• Major discount camera stores are concentrated on both sides of Shinjuku station, although there is a particularly large cluster just outside the West Exit. The undisputed king Yodobashi has branches on practically every block; note that the branches specialize, so you may have to look for the right branch to find what interests you (digital cameras, video cameras, medium-format photography...?). The other major names are Sakuraya and Bic. These stores have been transformed by computers and the internet, and their computer departments match Akihabara in volume, price, and selection.
• Don Quijote, 1-16-5 Kabuki-cho (on Yasukuni-Dori), [3]. A hectic 24-hour discount store that sells just about everything that you would never imagine needing at three in the morning but might just pick up anyway, such as clothing, bicycles, electronics, jewelry, and gag gifts.
• Nishi-Shinjuku 7-chome, to the northwest of the JR station, is packed with music shops specializing in various genres such as punk and heavy metal. Many sell nothing but bootlegs and collectibles.

Eat

Budget

The Lumine and MyLord department stores atop the south side of the JR station both have inexpensive restaurant arcades on their upper floors.

• Keuwjai, Lumine 1, B2F. A good place for Thai street-stall style food. It's always packed and hectic for lunch, with attendants hollering to attract customers.
• Café Haïti, Nishi-Shinjuku 1-19-2 B1F, +81-3-3346-2389. Strong coffee and spicy curry.
• Christon Cafe, Oriental Wave Bldg 8F, 5-17-13 Shinjuku, tel. +81-3-5287-2426, [4]. A great atmosphere for those looking to lounge around on a leather couch surrounded by cathedral lighting, gargoyles, and an array of Christian decor. First class service with price that is hard to believe considering how great the food is, with most mains well under ¥1000. Very very nice place for somebody on a tight budget that would like to endulge in a upclass establishment.

Mid-range

• Juttoku (十徳), New Sentora Bldg B1F, 1-5-12 Nishi-Shinjuku. +81-3-3342-0339, [5]. Open 4:00 PM to 12:00 AM, until 4:00 AM on Sun. This izakaya has an excellent selection of sake.

• The Lockup, Oriental Wave 5F, 5-17-13 Shinjuku, tel. +81-3-5272-7055. A Shinjuku original that has since spawned several branches elsewhere in Tokyo. It has a hybrid prison/dungeon/horror movie theme: customers are led to tables inside stone cells by waitresses in plastic-miniskirt police uniforms, where they are "locked up" and given menus filled with bizarre drinks (the most well-known of which consists of a rack of test tubes filled with flavored syrups, a flask full of alcohol, and a beaker to mix everything in) and relatively normal food. Twice every night, a "jailbreak" is staged in which the lights go out and costumed hoodlums scare the living daylights out of random patrons. Open 5 PM-5 AM.

• Kappō Nakajima (割烹 中島), Shinjuku 3-32-5 basement (Southeast exit, in the narrow street east of Ohtsuka Furniture), closed Sundays. Specializes in sardine dishes. Yanagawa teishoku is deep-fried sardines with scrambled eggs on rice. (Tastes better than it sounds.)

• Shunka Shuto (春花秋灯), 53rd floor of Tokyo Opera City (see above), +81-3-5353-7111. Enjoy the view while dining on seafood and other specialties of Hokkaido.

• Yanbaru (やんばる), Shinjuku 3-23-6 (north of Kabukicho exit). +81-3-3353-2028. There's nothing pretentious about this restaurant specializing in Okinawan food, which emphasizes pork and vegetables that are unusual even to Honshu Japanese. Recommend is beni imo (¥450), tempura-style sweet potato; and hechima misoni (¥600), an eggplant-like vegetable served in a strongly fermented miso sauce. A picture menu is available.

• There's a cluster of interesting ethnic restaurants on the south side of Koshu-Kaido-dori, to the west of the station.
  • Rose de Sahara (+81-3-3379-6427) offers fried alligator and other African foods.
  • España (+81-3-3379-1159), in the same building, has good paella.
  • A few buildings away on the ground floor, Court Lodge (+81-3-3376-7733) serves spicy dishes of Sri Lanka.
• Bosphorus Hasan (+81-3-3354-7947, Shinjuku 3-chome) has authentic Turkish food.

• Din Tai Fung Sendagaya 5-24-2, Takashimaya 10F, 03-5361-1381. 10 AM-7:30 PM, closed W. Tokyo branch of the renowned Taiwan dim sum restaurant, speciality are the dumplings.

Splurge

• Torafugu-Tei (とらふぐ亭), Kabukicho 2-11-7 Metro Bldg. B1F. Specializing in the infamous fugu (blowfish), it's one of the huge number of seafood restaurants in Kabukicho (see below). Set dinners go for around Y5000, featuring fugu prepared five or six ways, fresh from the tank.

Drink

The Kabukichō (歌舞伎町) district, to the northeast of JR Shinjuku station, is Tokyo's most notorious red-light district — although during the daytime you might not even notice, especially if you can't decode the elaborate Japanese codewords on the billboards. At night it's a different story though, as sharkskin-suited junior yakuza gangsters hustle, girls in miniskirts beckon in customers and adults-only vending machines strut their stuff. Night or day, it's always packed with people, and though outsiders are generally not involved, quite a bit of gangland violence goes on in the vicinity. In addition, the closely-packed mah-jongg and strip clubs are fire hazards that rival Hong Kong high-rises.

• To the south of Kabuki-cho is Shinjuku ni-chome (新宿２丁目), Tokyo's largest gay district.
• Golden Gai (ゴルデン街) (...gai = "...district") is the name given to a few narrow alleys in a block on the east edge of Kabukicho. It's packed with tiny aging "hole-in-the-wall" bars and started as a red light district some decades ago; morphing into some sort of a subversive hangout; and finally now into an odd assortment of tiny bars some up very steep steps. The irony of the place is that while it has become somewhat of a tourist attraction, many of the bars rely on regulars, so strangers wandering in may receive either a frosty reception, cover charge or both. If the door is open and you get a smile go in, it's an experience not to be had anywhere else. Many of the bars have Karaoke and ancient mama-sans, while one has an old man who speaks Spanish and plays flamenco videos on a tiny black & white TV, and who occasionally plays guitar; one of the least friendly has a great collection of Jazz CDs. For those looking for some alternative rock, seek out "Rock Bar: Mother" for an extensive collection of Punk and Metal CD's. If you are put off by some bars look for Bar K, which is always welcoming of foreigners with beers for 1000 yen a mini long neck. Some places charge for Karaoke with coin machines while others like Bar K have it as service but the bar has also to pay for the service so a small karaoke surcharge is sometimes added.

• If you only want a stroll around and then escape for a cheap drink, the more contemporary Coin Bar located just before the Golden Gai entrance slightly west as you head back towards Kabuki-cho, sells all drinks for 500 yen and staffed mostly by Pilipinas who speak excellent English.

• On the west side of the Yamanote tracks, Omoide Yokochō (思い出横丁, "Memory Lane") is a small alley filled with yakitori joints. The tunnel under the tracks near the entrance of Omoide Yokocho is nicknamed gokiburi yokochō (cockroach lane) or shonben yokochō (piss lane). No prizes for guessing why.

Pubs and taverns

• The Dubliners, Shinjuku 3-28-9, 03-3352-6606 (Two minutes from JR east exit). Down a pint of Guinness and mingle with the local expats.

Clubs

• Tokyo's most famous techno club, the Liquid Room, used to be in Kabukicho but has now moved to Ebisu.

Sleep

Budget

• Tama Ryokan, 1-25-33 Takadanobaba. Tel: +81 (3) 3209-8062, Fax: +81 (3) 3209-8068. [6] Prices for one person start at JPY 4,500, and the prices drop if more than 1 person stays per room, prices can very, so its not a bad idea to write an email and ask about seasonal prices. There is a lounge for relaxing and internet access. Tama Ryokan is only a 3 minute walk from Takadanobaba Station.

Mid-range

• Tokyu Stay Yotsuya 2-1 Yotsuya. Tel 03-3354-0109, fax 03-3354-0191, [7]. Singles start at JPY 9,450- doubles at JPY 17,850 per night. Slight discounts are offered for extended stays. Part of the Tokyu Stay chain, these hotels are popular with business travelers. The small kitchenettes, washer/dryers, and free LAN access in all rooms makes these a good value.
• Hotel Sunlite Shinjuku, tel 03-3356-0391, fax 03-3356-1223, [8]. Singles start at JPY 8,715- doubles at JPY 12,075 per night. Discounts are offered if you refer to their webpage.

Splurge

The western side of Shinjuku has a notable concentration of luxury hotels.

• Park Hyatt Tokyo, 3-7-1-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, tel. 5322 1234, [9]. Towering above the rest literally and figuratively, this hotel is best known as the stage of the hit movie Lost in Translation [10]. Service and amenities are superlative, but rates are astronomical even by Japanese standards with singles starting at ¥50,000.

• Keio Plaza Hotel, 2-2-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, tel. 3344-0111, [11]. Less than 10 minutes by foot from Shinjuku Station.

Rentals

If you plan on staying in Tokyo for a month or more you might want to check out Sakura House [12], Nishi-Shinjuku K-1 Bldg. 2F, 7-2-6, +81-3-5330-5250, info@sakura-house.com.

Contact

• The Tokyo Tourist Information Center, a good source of information on not just Tokyo but all of Japan, is now located on the 1st floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building 1. This office is geared for foreign visitors, so all materials are in languages other than Japanese and all staff speak English. Open 9:30 AM to 6 PM daily.