Shinjuku

Shinjuku is situated in Western Tokyo and is noted for two things: Firstly it is the most cosmopolitan part of Tokyo, housing huge department stores, bars, nightclubs and places to hang out. Secondly it's also the location of the Shinjuku mainline station, which is the busiest train station in the world with 2 million people using it every day; that's pretty busy. The busiest station in London is Victoria station and that sees a mere 300,000.

We had chosen to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in the Western half of the district as they open the top floors in the evening, so like the Tokyo Tower the previous night we'd be able to see over the city.

Here's more neon found on Higashi Dori, one of the main roads in Shinjuku. The ECC being advertised isn't our coaster club alas but a chain of English Language Schools. These are popular with business men, looking to improve their English and there were several of them in the area because this was where a lot of business men worked.

As we walked along Higashi Dori, we started to notice lots of business men getting ready to sleep rough. It was quite late and they may have missed the last train home, but you wouldn't get this here, so it came as a bit of a shock. Because the crime situation is Japan is nothing like it is here, these guys would be safe so they were safe to do what they were doing. This is why it came as a shock to me I suspect. I didn't think it was right to take pictures which is why there isn't one.

Eventually we made it to the Northern building (there are 2, both of which are open to the public). A swift ride to the top and we were welcomed with an immaculate looking top floor bar, complete with grand piano and posh bar. There were no dating couples here tonight, instead we had a couple of older women who had brought their mothers along for a quiet night out. Alas the views weren't that great, partly because of the grubby windows but also because the main neon-lit districts were only visible from the South Tower, we'd picked the wrong one first. This is the view north towards Ikebukero, which is a shopping district. But with the shops closed at this time of night there wasn't much to see.


This is looking back at Shinkjuku (I think). This was the neonscape I had wanted, it was just a pity I couldn't get even closer! After this we tried to make it to the South Tower but it had already closed. More disturbingly however the entrance plaza was full of more business people getting ready to sleep for the night. No pictures again for the same reason as mentioned earlier, it just didn't feel right, even though I'm sure it was no big deal to the people doing it.

It was now approaching midnight so it was time to return to the hotel. Tomorrow we were off to Disney, and it was going to be a long day and I would be taking a lot more pictures there than I did here.

Tokyo Disneyland