Kabukicho - A proper red light district.

Kabukicho is the red district residing on the northeast side of Shinjuku station. If wikipedia is to be believed, and having been to the area myself I'm inclined to believe, there are over 3,000 bars, nightclubs, love hotels, massage parlors, and hostess bars. This is all in an area geographically no larger then say Faneuil Hall back in Boston.

The night of my first trip to Kabukicho started out innocently enough. Drinks at the local Hub Pub, a British style pub located in Tokyo Opera city, a giant skyscraper and pinnacle of high culture.

Conveniently located a five minute walk from my apartment and about thirty feet from the giant statue Opera man.

I hadn't counted on the Hub Pub showing an Australian rugby match and the rowdy pair of New Zealanders and a Brit I met watching it. After the match they invited me along to the Dubliners pub in Shinjuku down the street. A few beers later, 1am or maybe 2am was rolling around and one of the guys was inspired to head out to Champions, a dive bar tucked away in a small alley in the middle of Kabukicho.

Once you enter Kabukicho, the streets get narrow and every inch of each building is covered with neon signs.

Each building has at least 5 or 6 different establishments.

Unlike say Las Vegas, Kabukicho doesn't have the feel of some over commercialized caricature of a red light district, it feels like the real deal. The government seems to allow these places to operate unobstructed. There are simply so many establishments I don't know if it's possible that they could all be regularly monitored. No single place seems big enough to draw attention to itself. Despite all this, like everywhere else in Tokyo it's perfectly safe, no one gets robbed. There are no fights.

The density of these bars/clubs/message parlors means that there's fierce competition to get people in the door. There's all manner of specialization on display.

This place seems to cater to the um, "I like the size of your gun" crowd. Maybe American soldiers stationed in Tokyo perhaps?

The clubs also hire armies of pushers to make sure no male, particularly fair skinned gaijin males, walks through Kabukicho un-accosted. Some are dressed in slick cut suits and just casually ask you if you're looking for a girl tonight. Others, often other foreigners, come at you with a full court press and will persistently follow you for blocks trying to get you into a club.

This particular evening I had a Jamaican guy in an LA dodgers cap come up to me. The interaction went something as follows, recreated based on my hazy, overstimulated recollection, as I'm walking to the bar.

Guy: Heyyyyyyy mon, you look like a rich mon, looking for sexy time.

Me: Sorry not interested

Guy: Hey mon where you from, mon

Me: Boston,

Guy: Ohhh Boston mon, I'm from Jamaica I've been to New York, LA

Me: That where you got your hat?

Guy: Of course mon, I love Americans, what you looking for tonight mon, anything you want we got it, you want massages, girls, clubs, dancing, anything you want mon.

Me: Sorry man I'm just heading to Champions with some friends

Guy: Oh mon, that place is nothing, you tell me what you want.

Finally we made it to the bar and he gave up.

Ah champions, a bar where the beer is cheap, and the karaoke is cheaper. Many of the details are a bit hazy, but I distinctly remember at one point a couple attempting the duet "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. To be fair I think world may be the most difficult english word for native Japanese speakers to say, all the characters in the Japanese alphabet consist of either a vowel or a consonant followed by a vowel, save one. World ends with three consonants, and r next to an l (which doesn't exist in Japanese and is approximated in borrowed words with r) to boot.

Despite the lyrical challenges of the performers, it seemed an appropriate theme.

A whole new world...