Tokyo Loose (Tel: 03 3207 5677) late night bar/club open with 500 yen drinks during Happy Hour. Bar Plastic Model (Tel: 03 5273 8441), a 70s/80s (Showa 50s) retro-theme bar in Goldengai. Goldfinger (Tel: 03 6383 4649) lesbian bar.ĭubliners (Tel: 03 3352 6606), an Irish theme pub, part of a chain in Tokyo with branches in Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Akasaka, Toranomon and Shinagawa. Some of the most famous gay bars and clubs that make it into the guide books include: Arty Farty (Tel: 03 5362 9720)
In warm weather, especially, the streets are thronged with men moving from place to place, or as spill-over from street bars, chatting with drinks in hands. This conclave of mostly tiny bars, as well as more spacious cruise bars, dance clubs, bookshops, cafes, and saunas, is a little world unto its own after dark. Shinjuku Ni-Chome is accessible from the Central East Exit or South-East Exit of Shinjuku Station and is about 8 minutes' walk. Shinjuku Ni-chome is the heart of the Tokyo gay scene. Streets of gay bars and clubs in Shinjuku 2-Chome, Tokyo Now Omoide Yokocho is a cosmopolitan den of izakaya type bars with an international clientele of Japanese office workers and foreign tourists. Omoide Yokocho roughly translates as Memory Lane - or, in other words, a place that you know from way back and feel somewhat nostalgic about.The area started out as a huge black market close to Shinjuku Station in the days right after World War II. Of the over 200 bars here, there are many that welcome foreigners. It escaped the fate of most such areas in the 1980s which was arson by the yakuza for the purpose of sale to developers, thanks to the vigilance of its supporters.įamed for its dense rows of tiny bars and its unabashed grottiness, this ground-level warren of tiny bars attracts a multitude of different types, and promises interesting encounters. Golden Gai is block of bars just east of Kabukicho that preserves the Tokyo of the 1960's. Kabukicho is the setting for much of Natsuo Kirino's novel Out. Check out the over-the-top (but misleadingly named) Robot Restaurant for some fun, clean, above-board, but unforgettable, high-tech entertainment. Kabukicho is not all sleaze and there are a number of cinemas and good restaurants in the area. Though yakuza (gangsters) are out and about here and both foreign and Japanese touts can get in your face, it is safe enough even at night, and plenty enough restaurants and bars that cater to every taste to keep you from having to wander for too long.
Many of the sexual services on offer are not available to foreigners unless you go with a Japanese cognoscente. Kabukicho is renowned for its thousands of hostess bars, pink cabarets, soaplands, strip joints, porno video and DVD outlets and its numerous love hotels. Kabukicho (歌舞伎町) is a red-light district north off Yasukuni-dori Avenue, east of Seibu Shinjuku Station and accessible from the Kabukicho or Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae (Shinjuku Ward Office) intersections. Kabukicho Kabukicho - Straight Shinjuku Nightlife Among them are the majestic twin-towered Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings, or 'Tocho', designed by the legendary architect Kenzo Tange, and occupied during the day by over 13,000 city administrative workers. Nishi Shinjuku in particular exudes wealth and power with its towering skyscrapers. Shinjuku is divided into Higashi (east) and Nishi (west) Shinjuku by the train lines that run through Shinjuku Station on the Yamanote Line. When you are done with shopping in Shinjuku during the day, turn your attention to all the area has to offer after dark from fine dining, to rowdy pubs, from sex and sleaze to one of the world's most vibrant gay entertainment districts. Shinjuku is the contemporary heart of Japan's bustling capital. Shinjuku, on the western edge of Tokyo, is a city within a city, that truly never sleeps.
Kabukicho - Shinjuku Straight Nightlife.