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[Route Goes North to Takadanobaba Station]
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Full city map with pictures and numbered locations of sites and landmarks to see. [340Kb - See a map of the entire Tokyo Area]






[See the West Shinjuku Station photo gallery]





 

The beautiful photo of Nishi-Shinjuku above is courtesy of Tsutomu Kuriyama from the Panorama Tokyo Review.

Go to the photo gallery for Shinjuku Station West.

Shinjuku is the largest and busiest station in the world.  It handles in the range of 1 to 2million people every day, going in and out of it's ticket gates.  It is also an area of total contrasts.  I had heard friends talk about this station even before I went to Tokyo.  They all said it was a horrible, chaotic place, that you can never escape from.  That just seemed to make me more excited to see it in person.  The size and the crowds of people, is quite exciting.  It is a city that never sleeps and is always noisy.

This page is split into west and east sides because the station is so big.  This page is the west side and the other page is the east side.

When I talked about contrasts in Tokyo, I should have given Shinjuku Station as an example.  The West and East sides are totally different. The West being ordered and business like, with monolithic skyscrapers and large avenues.  The East side has small crowded and cramped streets that are unorganized and many smaller buildings focused completely on entertainment.

This, the tallest skyscraper in Tokyo, is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices Building.

The Tokyo Metro Gov. Office is an architectural wonder.  it was built in December 1990, and opened in April 1991.  The towers are 243 meters high and the design uses super structure technology to withstand great earthquakes and enables large office areas to be built using no supporting pillars.

Here is another view from the base, in the building's plaza.

The observation deck in tower to the right, is on the 45th floor.  This is definitely the best FREE view in Tokyo.  Yes free!  Other tall buildings and one tower (Tokyo Tower) charge an arm and a leg to use their lofty view points.  Tokyo Tower - 1100yen (which is about $14.00 Canadian, or about $10.00 American) This building however is free of charge and just as good or better than the others.  It's hours are Tuesday to Friday 9:30 ~ 17:30, Saturdays Sundays and holidays 9:30 ~ 19:30.  To get there the best way is to exit the West Exit of Shinjuku station and work your way underground as far West as possible.  Rise to street level and head west (away from the station) down any main street and you will see the towers.  Enter the building on the lowest floor and turn to the right to get to the observatory elevator.

 

Copyright ©1999 3DeeArts.  All photos property of 3DeeArts Tokyo Virtual Tour.
Copy or re-use in any way is prohibited.  Background photo by Tsutomu Kuriyama ©1999.
Main text by 3DeeArts ©1999/2000.  Additional text by Donald Richie from
Introducing Tokyo ©1987 Kodansha International Ltd.