Shinjuku has two faces. North and east of Shinjuku Station lies the vast entertainment district that encompasses the neon canyons of Kabukicho. With its densely packed buildings, each one housing numerous bars, clubs, and shops, Kabukicho really is a town that never sleeps. Meanwhile, to the west and south of the station, one finds a completely different landscape: a forest of skyscrapers occupied by city government offices, luxury hotels, and commercial buildings.

Until the middle of the Edo period, Shinjuku was nothing but a hayfield along the Koshu Kaido, the highway connecting Edo with Kami-Suwa, a castle town in the mountains to the west. Back then the center of Tokyo was Nihonbashi. There were 44 post-station towns along the Koshu Kaido until 1699, when a forty-fifth stop was added. That inn town grew into the place known today as Shinjuku - which literally means "new inn." Travelers who set out from Nihonbashi in the morning would make their first stop at Shinjuku, which grew into an agglomeration of businesses and amusement spots that soon made up Edo's foremost pleasure quarter. Kabukicho is known today as a place that can meet every basic human need around the clock, and that character had already been established by the Edo period.

Shinjuku continued to develop as a transportation hub in the Meiji period (1868-1912). Although Shinjuku Station was largely leveled by the air raids of 1945, the east side of the station, including two department stores that had survived the bombing, quickly resumed operations immediately after the war, and Kabukicho was reborn as a new entertainment district. The revival of the east side of the station was followed in the mid-1950s by the launchings of three large department stores on the west side of the station. From then on, both sides of Shinjuku bustled with foot traffic.

But it was in the 1970s that the area around the station's western entrance began to develop in earnest. The appearance of the first skyscraper, a large hotel, in the early 1970s, ushered in a flurry of construction projects. This boom resulted in the office buildings, luxury hotels, and other towers that make up the forest of skyscrapers now covering what once was just a hayfield. In 1991 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government moved its offices here. These now span over 20 high-rise buildings holding a total of 120,000 workers.

Just as the area around Shinjuku Station's east entrance preserves the unique ambience of an inn town in all of its disarray, the area around the west represents the new face of Shinjuku; a place born of a departure from tradition. Visitors to Shinjuku can easily glimpse both of these faces.

On the eastern edge of Kabukicho is Golden Gai, a cluster of five short, narrow streets lined with several dozen tiny bars that have been converted from old barracks. The establishments, none more than about 10 square meters in area, are always packed to capacity with regulars. Of course, "packed to capacity" is a relative term, since many of the establishments only have four or five seats. Golden Gai has long been a haunt of the intelligentsia; novelists, poets, manga artists, filmmakers, and playwrights are among those who come here to engage in heated discussions over cheap sake late into the night.

In 1975, Golden Gai found itself suddenly in the spotlight when two writers known for drinking the night away in its bars won a pair of Japan's most prestigious literary awards. Ever since that time, having a favorite bar in Golden Gai has been considered an essential qualification for being a person of culture, and the district has been enjoying a heyday. Although old bar owners have passed the mantle to successive generations and longtime regulars have departed, Golden Gai has maintained its vigor by steadily attracting a younger clientele.

A little way from Golden Gai is Shinjuku Suehirotei (site is Japanese only), a theater dedicated to performances of rakugo, a traditional comic monologue form that has become a rarity. It is said that at one point during the Edo and Meiji periods, the city had over 100 rakugo theaters. But during the Taisho era (1912-26), rakugo declined rapidly, done in by the rise of movie theaters. Now there are only a handful of rakugo theaters, including the Shinjuku Suehirotei, left in Tokyo. A performance of this witty storytelling art handed down from the Edo period affords a glimpse into the kind of humor that has tickled Japanese sensibilities since ancient times.

The restaurants found on the top floors of all of these high-rise buildings afford views of Tokyo Bay to the east and Mt. Fuji and other mountains, appearing surprisingly close, to the west. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Twin Towers building, the tallest structure in Shinjuku, has two free-admission observation decks on the south and north sides of its forty-fifth floor. An unexpected amenity for a city government building is the bar that opens in the evening hours.

The development around the west entrance to Shinjuku Station continues. Seven years ago, a multipurpose cultural complex known as Tokyo Opera City was completed. This 54-story structure, located on the west side of the cluster of high-rises, includes a theater offering operas, ballets, theatrical performances, and concerts. The complex is practically a city in itself, with restaurants and offices where some 10,000 people work.

Shinjuku is also a mecca for camera buffs. Along with the big discount retailers near the west station entrance, many other camera shops of various sizes are concentrated in this area. Shoppers can find new and used equipment, as well as a full array of photographic materials, to suit photographers of every level from pro to amateur. The used-camera shops offer the tantalizing possibility of some stellar finds. There are large discount shops around the east entrance too, so camera shoppers should check out both areas.

The area south of the station has also seen rapid development in recent years. Just outside the south entrance is Southern Terrace, a 350-meter walkway lined with an array of restaurants, cafes, home-decor shops, and other establishments. The free-standing buildings in this, the most recently developed area of Shinjuku, impart a stylish ambience that makes this a fresh, pleasant walking and shopping destination. At the end of the walkway is a high-rise complex housing another luxury hotel. This complex also has a collection of restaurants that draw shoppers in after they have had their fill of walking around. Just across the train tracks from this complex are a large department store and Japan's largest bookstore, which boasts a million titles.

Shinjuku is always changing, but one thing that always remains the same is its vitality.

The park now known as Shinjuku Gyoen was created from Naito's estate in 1906. Shinjuku Gyoen was designed by a French gardener over a period of four years. Though originally created as an imperial garden, this large park, a leafy oasis amid the bustle of Shinjuku, was opened to the general public after World War II, in 1949.

For visitors worn out from shopping and elbowing the crowds, a stroll in Shinjuku Gyoen is the ideal restorative. The famous park covers 60 hectares (about 150 acres) and cleverly blends elements of French, English, and Japanese gardens. With over 20,000 trees flourishing within its bounds, the park is an unexpected breath of fresh air in the heart of the city. Also inside the park is a large greenhouse containing 1,700 species of tropical and subtropical plants. In Shinjuku Gyoen, it is easy to forget space and time.

Just one street over from Takeshita-dori, a totally different atmosphere prevails. The sweeping boulevard known as Omotesando, which runs parallel to Takeshita-dori, has a chic, adult ambience. Studded with cafes, restaurants, and high-end boutiques, the street, which runs about a kilometer southeast from Harajuku Station, has been called the "Champs-Elysees of Japan." It is fun to get dressed up in a stylish outfit and stroll along this boulevard. And it is just as much fun to sit at an outdoor café and watch the stylish people stroll by.