Shinjuku Area

Shinjuku Station and Kabukicho

Shinjuku Station is on all the JR lines, the Keio Line, the Odakyu Line and the Tokyo Metro and Toei subways, with large department stores clustered around its exits. From Tokyo Station it is about 14 minutes on the JR Chuo Line Rapid; from Haneda about 55 minutes by train or limousine bus; from Narita about 1 hour 35 minutes by train.

Kabukicho spreads out on the east side of the station, a maze of hotels and night spots, with one corner where tiny wooden bars are packed on top of each other. West of the station stands the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, whose upper-floor observatories look out over the city. To the south, Shinjuku Gyoen is a former Imperial garden; drinking alcohol and smoking are prohibited inside.

Around it: Okubo, Takadanobaba and Yoyogi

Shin-Okubo Station is about 5 minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Yamanote Line. Around it lie the country's largest Korean town and Islam Yokocho, a street of markets and restaurants with a small mosque; Okubo Station on the JR Chuo and Sobu lines is a five-minute walk away. Takadanobaba and Waseda form a student district, with more than 30 used bookshops along Waseda-dori. Yoyogi is the next stop south of Shinjuku.

How RED LIGHT JAPAN divides this area

This site splits the Shinjuku area into Shinjuku/Kabukicho, Okubo/Shin-Okubo, Takadanobaba, Yoyogi and Shinjuku Gyoen. Walk-in formats such as soaplands cluster in particular blocks; delivery health is an outcall format used at a hotel or another place you choose, so for outcall venues the area usually marks the reception or base.