Japan Guide
Tokyo
Shinjuku
Some 4km due west of the Imperial Palace, Shinjuku is the modern heart of Tokyo. The district has a long history of pandering to the more basic of human desires, and a day and an evening spent in the area will show you Tokyo at its best and worst – from the love hotels and hostess bars of Kabukichō to the no-frills bars of Shomben Yokochō ("Piss Alley") and the shop-till-you-drop department stores and hi-tech towers.
Shinjuku Station, a messy combination of three terminals (the main JR station, plus the Keiō and Odakyū stations beside their respective department stores on the west side) and connecting subway lines, splits the area into two. There's also the separate Seibu Shinjuku Station, northeast of the JR station. At least two million commuters are fed into these stations every day and spun out of sixty exits. The rivers of people constantly flowing along the station's many underground passages only add to the confusion and it's easy to get hopelessly lost. If this happens, head immediately for street level and get your bearings from the skyscrapers to the west.