October 6, 2025 — 4:00am
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Got itThis article is part of Traveller’s Destination Guide to Tokyo. See all stories.
Tokyo’s largest entertainment district isn’t for the fainthearted, but will smack the gob of the inquisitive. It’s a place you’d think you’d see only in sci-fi movies: glittering futuristic buildings blinking with video messages, restaurants run by robots, back alleys lined by shady bars.
You’ll come across all kinds of things here: Godzilla, pretty men that work in bars for lonely women, fake Buddhist monks begging, annoying touts, the odd yakuza gangster – plus all of ordinary Tokyo, who come to look and play.
There’s unlimited nightlife options in Shinjuku.iStock
Shinjuku lies just to the west of central Tokyo. Its train station, a noodle collision of train and underground lines with a bus station above, sees more than 2 million office workers, shoppers and schoolchildren a day pour in and out in well-mannered battalions.
Famous department stores – Isetan, Keio, Takashimaya – are poised beyond to snap up shoals of shoppers and the hungry, who descend into basement food halls for bento boxes and other pre-prepared goodies. Megastores are crammed with flashing electronics and gadgets as yet unknown in Australia.
Towering over it all is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Its nightly projection mapping displays include an appearance by Godzilla and its free observation decks (the one in the south tower is better) give you a dizzying view of the urban excitement below and well beyond.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building has a nightly display.Alamy
It’s surrounded by other skyscrapers and several posh hotels, including Lost in Translation’s Park Hyatt (which recently reopened). But being in Shinjuku is more like being in a vast video game than a movie because everything changes all the time.
The way to get to grips with Shinjuku is to break it down into different more manageable zones. North of the station, the sheer number of ramen outlets has given the area the nickname Ramen Battleground.
It’s a “Ramen Battleground” in Shinjuku.iStock
Shinjuku Nichome is the city’s gay neighbourhood. Yasukuni-dori is lined with karaoke chains. Shinjuku Sanchome has lots of small, relatively sedate izakaya eateries. A little further away is Shin-kubo Koreatown, where you can get your fix of K-pop, ginseng and bulgogi.
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Artsy, ramshackle Golden Gai is a maze of 200 small bars, and with its rusty signs, peeling doors and tangles of electric cabling feels like a shantytown. Air-con units bulge above the street, groaning and clanking. Lane 5 might be the nicest of all the alleys, with its lamps and lanterns and chandelier hanging outside Albatross. With so many bars, you’ll always find one to suit: some raucous, some genteel, some welcoming (“If you have a problem, ask me! I love English & you”), others with committed regulars disapproving of foreign interlopers.
The epicentre of Shinjuku’s frenzy is bar-dense Kabukicho, the red-light district but also a party destination that gets wild after the trains stop at 1am. Touts, extortionate cover charges, disappearing credit cards and drink spiking aren’t uncommon, so keep your wits about you.
You’ll find a bar you like in Kabukicho.iStock
The area is crammed with restaurants, raucous pachinko parlours and love hotels. In the middle of it all is a batting range where you can practice your baseball swing. Shops sell everything, sometimes in the one establishment: socks, groceries, adult toys.
Shinanoya has great wines, liquors and cheeses. Next door is Kabukiya, where you can buy a second-hand Balenciaga or Louis Vuitton bag. Other shops sell pink suits and velvet jackets to the male hosts who work in ladies’ bars, where they deal in suave conversation, romantic eye fluttering and expensive bottles of champagne.
Tiny alleys have eclectic character.Alamy
Check out the giant billboard outside Club The Stinger, which lists the earnings of its star performers, shown in poster-sized photos, all looking as if they’ve graduated from Korean boy bands. No. 3, who wears a Prada sweatshirt and has a black fringe drooping over his eyes and mouth red as a geisha’s, has earned ¥8 million ($85,000) in the last few months on tips and commissions on the thousands of bottles of champagne he encourages his clients to buy. Nice work, and in Shinjuku barely even remarkable.
THE DETAILSRelated Article
FLY
Japan Airlines flies from Sydney and Melbourne to Tokyo. See jal.co.jp
STAY
If you want to stay beyond pricey, noisy Shinjuku, ANA InterContinental Tokyo offers luxury with glorious views and outstanding dining. Rooms from ¥45,420 ($482) a night. See anaintercontinental-tokyo.jp
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gotokyo.org
The writer was a guest of Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau and ANA InterContinental Tokyo.
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Brian Johnston seemed destined to become a travel writer: he is an Irishman born in Nigeria and raised in Switzerland, who has lived in Britain and China and now calls Australia home.Traveller GuidesFrom our partners
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