Blog

2019.04.02

“Tokyo Review 031″ Shinjuku area-7 Hanazono Shrine and Shinjuku Golden-Gai

“Tokyo Review 031” Shinjuku area-7

Hanazono Shrine and Shinjuku Golden-Gai

On the east of Kabuki-Cho bustling streets, there stands the Shinjuku ward government office, and a bit further to the east, there is the Hanazono Shrine. This old Shrine already existed when the Edo government started, came to enshrine the whole Shinjuku area since the opening of Naito Shinjuku lodging area. Nowadays, many business people and shop owners in Shinjuku come here to wish their prosperity.

Between the Shinjuku ward office and the Hanazono shrine, there is the “Four Season Road”, a promenade made by the Shinjuku Ward on the site which used to be the railway of the tram 13 line. When you get into this road from Yasukuni-Dori avenue, behind it is the area called “Shinjuku Golden Gai (Streets)”, which is now one of the most popular night life spots among inbound foreign visitors.

Originally it was a place given as a substitute for people in the black market in front of the Shinjuku station around 1950 when the government removed it. Wooden two-storey tenements are lined in a corner of about 50m square, forming retro spaces where more than 200 bars, the size of which are 10 square meters or so. The scenery makes you feel as if you have slipped in time and the atmosphere allows you to easily talk with strangers, all of which are attractive for tourists. Indeed, from foreign tourists’ view, everything in this place would give them exotic impression.

Even the scenery of Kabuki-Cho will be changing, this place will not change for the time being, I suppose. How does the host of the Hanazono shrine watch Shinjuku area in such situation?

PAGE TOP