Hostesses, bars, mobsters, and love hotels
Last Friday night found me walking through Shinjuku’s Kabukicho listening to an audio tour by Tokyo Realtime. I was a little skeptical at first, but right away it answered a question I’ve always been too lazy to look up: How a place with no Kabuki Theaters came to be called Kabukicho.
Like any good guide, the narrator balances history and current commentary well, letting you see not only what Kabukicho is today, but how it became that way. The audio also includes interesting interviews of shop owners and commentary from people who work in Kabukicho. The narrator even interviews an S&M ‘artist’ who works at one of the clubs.
The route takes you through the most interesting parts of the district and is pretty interactive, walking you through the lobby of a love hotel and some dark alleys. It also goes into the Golden-Gai, a fantastically cool cluster of one-room shanty like bars.
I really enjoyed the tour and managed to finish it without getting lost once. The only real annoyance was being constantly interrupted by people selling sex and beer. Some became especially persistent after seeing me walking through the same area twice because of the tour. All part of the charm of Kabukicho though, and can even be enjoyable if you are mellow about it. I actually had a conversation with a Nigerian pusher who seemed genuinely confused that i was not interested in prostitution, stripping, alcohol, weed, or cocaine. Turns out he was saving up money to get his music career off the ground, and hoped to return to Nigeria next year.
The publisher has provided a samples of the tour and some photo’s on their website. The tour was fantastic, and if you are interested in seeing an interesting part of Shinjuku, you should check it out.
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Now, that’s a great title for a post!
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@roaf: the post title was taken from the subtitle of the tour: “Hostesses, bars, mobsters, and love hotels, An audio guided tour through Shinjuku’s notorious sin district”
Cheers,
Max
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“The only real annoyance was being constantly interrupted by people selling sex and beer.”
I took an audio tour through a steel factory once, the only real annoyance was having to constantly avoid streams of molten metal. Still, awesome tourist attraction, full of character!
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ahhh, “The Cho.” Was the boxing guy still there in the square? The one who lets you box him for a few thousand yen?
anyone remember the fire that happened there a few years ago? with a mahjong place and some hostess clubs? quite a few people couldn’t get out, but family members all stated that their loved ones “had to be” in the mahjong place when the accident happened.
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that’s a tour that’s worth doing.
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i think ive met that nigerian. did he give you a cd? he’s called the villager right? ha ha ha
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gadgetfanatic,
Didn’t see a boxing guy, that sounds like fun though.
The tour did mention the fire and has you stop in front of the now empty lot for a few minutes.
kingofjamos,
Yeah, that’s the guy. I didn’t get a CD from him, but he gave me his card:
Happy home entertainment Co.limited
general manager
OJDEVILLAGER
Honestly I can’t stand all the harassment at a place like that, just because you’re a foreigner. I know it’s standard or whatever, but when strangers start grabbing me I say “get the fuck off, I don’t know you.” I don’t care if they’re doing their jobs or whatever, grabbing people literally is not the way to sell your sleazy product, it’s a way to piss people off
Anyway sorry about the rant but that’s a good post, the tour sounds interesting.
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At a place like that, or many other street corners all over town for that matter. I hate to stereotype but I’ve begun to dread walking past Nigerians as they always try to get me to go to some club. Many of them have a very hard time taking no for an answer. Yea, yelling at me and grabbing me is gonna entice me to follow you. You are right on there.
The tour does sound interesting though and since it’s an audio tour you can at least go around wearing some earphones which makes it a little easier to ignore the solicitors.
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I’m the producer of the tour, so if you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them here in this forum!
Glad to hear so many people interested in the tour.
Max Hodges
Producer
White Rabbit Press
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The “boxing guy” was Nagurareya, the human punching bag. Seems he stopped taking punches for yen several years ago.
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Interesting. About how long is the tour?
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Hey Curtis,
The tour was just over an hour long. The cover says it is 65 minutes, but that may include the disclaimer. It was a good length, felt about right.