Ten Thousand Restaurants, and a Guide Who Picks Four

Shinjuku has more than ten thousand restaurants and the busiest railway station in the world, which between them make the neighbourhood almost impossible to choose in. This tour narrows it to four places over three hours, with fifteen dishes and drinks included, and ten guests at most.

You meet by the blue AOKI sign beside the Starbucks at the west exit. Allow extra time: Shinjuku station has more than two hundred exits and people miss connections in it daily.

One stop is in Kabukicho, the largest entertainment district in the city. You walk past Omoide Yokocho, the surviving lane of tiny 1950s izakayas under the tracks, and see the Godzilla head mounted on the eighth floor of the Toho building above Kabukicho, which is visible from the street and looks exactly as odd as it sounds.

The stop that justifies the tour is in Nishi-Shinjuku, the office-tower side of the station. Almost no visitor eats there, and it is full of restaurants that exist for the people who work in the towers, which is a very different standard from the ones built for people passing through.

Between the plates the guide covers the history and the culture, and the tour is run to be enjoyable rather than solemn.

Guided in English. Download WhatsApp; your guide will get in touch. Food and drinks included.