And then there is Shinjuku itself, actually Shinjuku Ward, one of twenty-three in Tokyo. Huge interlocking world of commuters, youth, shoppers, entertainment, bars, eateries, passenger sidewalks and crossings. A meeting-place. A city beehive. Office skyscrapers to Dickensian back alleyways. Small counter noodle and yakitori places through to expensive cuisine restaurants (Japanese to general Italian-European). Rice-beef bowl shops like Yoshinoya. Salad and soup corners like Soup Stock Tokyo. Afternoon tea and cake retreats. An inevitable Starbucks. The Big Stores (depāto) of Times Square from the South Exit – most of them on the Southern Terrace – all come into view. Takashimaya. Lumine. Mylord. Flags. Isetan. Clothes and shoe boutiques by the score. Perfume and make-up franchises. Movies at Musashino-kan and each other Shinjuku cinema. Travel and holiday-booking through a company like No. 1, not to mention Odakyū Travel. The Shinjuku Washington if you want hotel fare. Case of Bordeaux or Burgundy? Try home-delivery from a wine store like Yamaya. You can do your kick-boxing here. Or ballroom dancing as filmed in Shall We Dance? – Koji Yakusho who plays Shohei Sugiyama, the dance-struck businessman, lives at Seijo on the Odakyū Line. On the Southern Terrace it was a huge pull when Krispy Kreme Doughnuts bowed in. Lines around the block and nothing if not a sugar threat to slim-line Japan.

West Exit gives you the serious hotels – Hyatt Regency, Keio Plaza, The Tokyo Hilton. Bus depot. Taxis stands. Bars. Yodobashi Camera with its electronics and computer treasury. Keio depāto (department store). It also gives you omoide yokocho, memory-lane, small alleyways of traditional Japan full of friendly eats and drinks corners. Nostalgia for many native Tokyoites. Round the corner from the East Exit there's Kabukicho with its ‘pink’ hostess bars, massage parlours and love hotels (‘the water trade’), not to say relentlessly clanging pachinko parlours. Street-criers in high-coloured happi (three-quarter coats) advertising each and every ware, restaurant or club, games-centre or bar. Hints of yakuza and pimping. Schoolgirl sexturf. Cruising males. If your taste so inclines there is gay Shinjuku ni-chōme.