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Friday, May 14, 2010

Shinjuku

 The moment you arrive JR Shinjuku station, you will see all sorts of different people.  .  The station is full of people; it is unlike any train station in the U.S.A., where you only see people when there is a train coming.  Shinjuku station is packed at all times.  It almost feels like every single group of people in Japan has a representative in Shinjuku station, tourists, domestic travelers, commuters, students, families, salary men, office ladies, couples….  

If you are looking for people in the entertainment industry like musicians, artists, actors and directors, Golden Gai (meaning Golden Street) will be the right place.  Golden Gai is packed with many nice, cool bars and clubs.    Kabukicho is where all the “fun” is, this is the red light district.  When I was walking through Kabukicho, I thought it was just a place full of shady pachinkos, but very soon realized that it was obviously not pachinkos.  I was also a little freaked out by the fact that every shop has a man who look like some sort of body guards standing outside of it.  Kabukicho has more than just sex-related activities going on though; it is also full of bars and restaurants.  I find it interesting that a McDonald’s is located in this area, because I do not think there will be a McDonald’s inside the red light district in the U.S.A.  Walk a little farther and you have reached Okubo, Korean town.  If you expect this area to be packed with Koreans, you are expecting too much.  Okubo is probably a 7- block street of Korean restaurants and Korean entertainers photo shops, where Japanese who love Koreans gather. 

Kagurazaka is the hanamachi (geisha houses) district.  It is one of the last remaining geisha areas in Tokyo.  If you want to see geishas and be super gaijin chasing down a geisha to take pictures, this is the area to go to.  Most geisha houses in Japan are very exclusive to rich men, so it is probably not very easy for a random foreigner to gain access into one of them. Going to the west of Shinjuku, Nishi-Shinjuku, is the skyscrapers area.  If you are in the JR Shinjuku station, just simply walk out of the West exit.  Nishi-Shinjuku has the most skyscrapers in Tokyo, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building where you can enter the observatory for free, KDDI building and Park Tower.  

 About a 20- minute walk from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is the Shinjuku Gyoen (park).  This park used to be the park for the royal family of Japan, but later they opened it up to the public.  The entrance fee is 200 yen, and it is crowded with people during the hanami season (sakura flowers viewing season).  There is also the Shinjuku Chuo Koen (Central Park), and Meiji Shrine Outer Gardens in this area.  Shinjuku Ni-chome is the gay district. 

Shinjuku is small but it has places that serve every function that you can think of.  There is the Shinjuku park that families visit, especially for “hanami”, there is the red light district full of probably businessmen and movie theatres for young people, and not far away there is the Korean town full of “obasan”, older women”, in the Korean pop stars photo shops going crazy for the photos, albums, notebooks, pens and key chains of their favorite Korean entertainers.  What a contrast?  The older businessman who cannot stand his wife visits Kabukicho, the red light district, and his wife who needs new fantasies to dream about is 10 minutes away in Korean town enjoying being surrounded by the young Korean entertainers’ photos.  Ironic.  And then, in the alleys between Kabukicho and Korean town are random Taiwanese restaurants and spas, and residential buildings.  They do not seem to blend in very well with everything else around them, but they are there.


      Kabukicho means the Japanese traditional theatre region.  When asked why Kabukicho is called Kabukicho, I immediately thought that it would be a good name for a red light district to have.  The husbands can tell the wife “I am going to Kabukicho tonight” and make it sound like he is going to see a kabuki show.  What a good name to have?  You can lie to your wife without actually lying to her!  Although a good name, it is not the reason Kabukicho is named.  The original owner of the region wanted to build a kabuki theatre in the area, but he ran out of money and it was hard to get a permit to build a kabuki theatre, so plan failed and the area ended up serving another purpose. 

      If you have never been up to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, you should.  It is free and it gives an idea of what Tokyo looks like.  I went up to the observatory with my host family one weekend.  Looking down to Tokyo from the observatory, Tokyo looks extremely crowded.  You see little patches of empty spaces that are called parks, empty spaces with two trees and three benches.  The view is “sugoi”, but it was definitely not what I was expecting.  I was expecting to see the familiar scene of the entire city being in grids, like it is when I saw Chicago from the John Hancock Tower.  Tokyo is messy and there is no way you can tell which area is which.  In Chicago, it is easy to differentiate a residential area from a business district; in Tokyo, I do not know which is which. 

      It makes me wonder what people will do if an earthquake occurs.  With so many people living in, passing through or just visiting, how can Shinjuku, only 7 square miles big, be able to evacuate everyone to empty open spaces?  Shinjuku has more than 317,355 residents, not including the visitors.  Furthermore, there are probably so many foreign visitors in Shinjuku who have not experienced an earthquake and obviously have no idea what to do in the event of an earthquake.  How will the government cope with the massive population and the foreign visitors?  Another problem I find is people unfamiliar with the area will have problem finding the place they want to visit.  There are so many alleys in Shinjuku that do not have street names.  The maps will maybe have street names and the alleys on them, but they will probably be too confusing for one to figure out.  And with the limited English Japanese speak; I doubt one who does not speak Japanese at all will be able to understand. 


      Although the trip was interesting and I got to see Shinjuku from a different perspective, I wish it was not raining, because I could not write down any notes about what I have discovered!  Besides, it was very irritating to walk in the rain that I could not really pay attention to my surroundings, since I was trying very hard to make sure that I stay dry!  I think something interesting to do when it is raining out is to sit in the McDonald’s we sat in for one day to observe the crowd of people who passes through Kabukicho, and observe how the crowd changes throughout the day. 
 

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