Early Morning in the Sleepless Town
Posted in Feature, Japan, Photography, Photowalk on July 27th, 2009 by jessleeTwo weekends ago, I, with 3 photo buddies, had an early morning photowalk again. This time in Kabukicho at around 5:30 in the morning.
Kabukichō is an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabukichō is the location of many hostess bars, host bars, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the “Sleepless Town”. The district’s name comes from late-1940s plans to build a kabuki theater: although the theater was never built, the name stuck. — Wikipedia
There are still nanpa activities in this early morning. A nanpa is a way to pick up girls in Japan. To know how it works, check Nampa – Japanese for Picking Up by Neil Duckett.
We walked through Shinjuku Golden Gai and we could still hear people laughing while having some chat inside the shanty-style bars and clubs. Learn more about the Golden Gai here: Old-world left in a Big City, Shinjuku’s Golden-gai
Kabukicho is a notorious place known for a lot of illegal activities like prostitution, illegal drug trafficking, and other crimes. A number of business establishments here are owned by yakuzas and Chinese triads. The photo below is the most famous police box throughout Japan for having been featured a couple of times in TV documentary shows.
Thanks to my friends: Mika, Kyoko, and Naoto for joining me in this walk.
