A visit to the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower
Located just a short walk north east of Shinjuku Station, Tokyo's Kabukicho district has for years enjoyed a certain stylish disreputability as Japan's largest and wildest red light district. More recently however, the area has begun to shed its negative image through a series of increasingly ambitious new developments - culminating in the new Tokyu Kabukicho Tower which opened on April 14.
Spread across 48 floors in addition to basement and penthouse levels, the tower contains two hotels, a live music venue, a cinema, a members-only wellness facility, an amusement arcade and a combined food and entertainment hall.
The brainchild of Nagayama Yuko, whose high profile works include the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, the tower is notable for being the first skyscraper in Japan to be designed by a woman. At 225 meters in height, it is currently the joint 13th tallest skyscraper in Tokyo and easy to spot from the Shinjuku area and beyond.
With its eye-catching facade of printed glass, darkening slightly in three fields of color from bottom to top and crested with pale spikes, the tower's design somewhat resembles a fountain - referencing the neighborhood's origins as a wetland and the Kanigawa River that once flowed nearby but has long since been built over.
The tower's four basement levels are taken up by the live music venue Zepp Tokyo, its former location in Odaiba having closed last year. With a total capacity of 2,000, the venue also boasts an advanced 360 degree array of LED screens to allow for highly immersive performances.
The majority of visitors will enter via the second story, dedicated entirely to entertainment and dining. At its center is the Kabukicho Cafe - a bar slash performance stage complete with illuminated floor and DJ equipment. Surrounding this is the Kabuki Yokocho food court with nine different counters, each specializing in a different regional cuisine and packed together into a relatively small space decked out with hanging lanterns, neon lighting and iconic decorations, creating the feel of a futuristic street food market.
Most of the third story is taken up by the Bandai Namco Amusement Center. Also leaning into a neon drenched, cyberpunk aesthetic, this area is packed with hundreds of gashapon, or capsule toy machines, as well as UFO grabbers and a few other classic arcade games. Visitors can also relax in a separate bar area, while the remaining space has been set aside for temporary attractions.
Next up is Tokyo Matrix - a kind of escape room challenge set across the whole of the fourth floor, in which teams of two to three must defeat monsters, search for items and clear traps. The game's overarching narrative will change seasonally, but is currently set in the universe of the popular light novel and anime series Sword Art Online.
Theatre Milano Za - described as a cutting edge performance stage with a capacity of approximately 900 - occupies levels six to eight. This was entirely closed and hidden from view at the time of my visit, but its inaugural performance of 'Stage Evangelion Beyond' is set to begin on May 6th.
Floors nine and ten belong to 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku, with eight screens including the first ScreenX in the Shinjuku area - sometimes described as 'sideways IMAX'; this involves a large screen expanded into three sections creating a 270 degree view.
The 17th floor is home to a bar, restaurant and gelateria, collectively known as JAM-17. Bar patrons can enjoy a spacious outdoor terrace extending most of the way along the building's eastern wall, while a smaller one for the general public can be found on the western side.
Occupying floors 18 to 38 is the first of two hotels, the Hotel Groove Shinjuku. In addition to standard rooms in 'superior', 'deluxe', 'premier' and 'executive twin' categories, the hotel boasts four suite rooms and a further three rooms with unique decor by an artist, similar to the Park Hotel's artist rooms.
For guests with larger budgets, the Bellustar Tokyo can be found on the uppermost floors from 39 to 47. This exclusive hotel contains 47 rooms, with the top three floors dedicated entirely to five penthouses, ranging in size from 113 to an impressive 277 square meters. Both hotels will open on May 19.
