Kabukicho – Tokyo’s Red Light District | TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography

Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

A small area of Tokyo, just east of Shinjuku Station is called Kabukicho. It was named after a Kabuki theater that was never built, but it is now famous and infamous, as Japan’s red light district. Packed with restaurants, bars, karaoke boxes, love hotels, and clubs filled with bouffant hosts and hostesses it is a gaudy temple to commercialism, hedonism and vice. It is also the location of the only Toyoko Inn budget hotel in Shinjuku so I tend to stay there when in the city.

Hostess Bars / Clubs in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

This was also a good chance for me to test out using the new K3 camera at higher ISOs (Changing the sensitivity of the sensor to light). I shot numerous images at ISO 1600 and found that the pics, after with a little noise reduction in Lightroom, are clean and sharp enough for me to use professionally. The K3 body with a pancake lens is also compact enough to fit in the pocket of my jacket so you can be reasonably discreet.

Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Hostess Bars / Clubs in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Robot Entertainment Bar – Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Hostess Bars / Clubs in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Very pleased with this last shot. It was mostly luck, but the anonymous silhouette of a man created an image far more interesting than if it had been just the sign alone.