Recently I went to Shinjuku in Tokyo.  When I was a college student, Shinjuku was rather a dirty place with a lot of bars and casual foods.

But the image of Shinjuku city changes from the pictures in my mind every time I visit.

Shinjuku is a large area for a town of Tokyo.  It’s divided into 3 or 4 parts depending on how we enjoy the city of Shinjuku.

Firstly, the business area is in the West area.  It’s easy to access from Shinjuku train station, you will find a lot of tall buildings once you step out on the ground from the station.  It’s a clean place with modernized city look and people are walking in business suites.  You can visit some of the beautiful buildings in this area and it’s a nice look from the top of them to see vast city of Tokyo.

I think you can check which building accepts visitors for sightseeing if you look up any guide books or through internet inforamtion.

Shopping area of Shinjuku is mainly in the East area, where there are some traditional Japanese department stores such as Isentan department store.  Other than big stores, you can enjoy a number of small shops selling fashion items, books, music CDs, and also various types of foods.

Staying on the streets in this area, we feel that Tokyo is really an amazing city with large number of entertainments around us.

Night life spots are mainly located in Kabukicho area. You can walk to this area through East area of Shinjuku, but as a note, this area is rather a sexual night spots than drinking bars or fine foods.  It’s not dangerous walking here but you must be careful if you enjoy such sexual amusement.  Recently we don’t hear much about deceivers or some bad guys, but I think there still are some who try to get money from strangers.  It might be interesting, if you are the first visitor in Shinjuku, to check this area how Japanese night life is on.

There is one more area in Shinjuku, where is in the South part of Shinjku.  This is a newly developed area in the last 10 years or so, and the main thing in this area is the huge department store called Takashimaya.   It’s new and beautiful entertainment zone not only for shopping but for foods and some attractions.

Shinjuku, especially Kabukicho Area never sleeps.  It’s 24 hour OK amusement place.  But again, visitors should be careful more than the day time.

When I was a college student, I sometimes spent the night  in Shinkjuku coffee shops or bars waiting for the first morning train for my home.  It’s a little nostalgic thing.