Tokyo 2006 Part III: Shinjuku 5 - Men's shopping area

Shinjuku 5-chome crossing, a block north from Shinjuku 3-chome Station (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line and Toei Chikatetsu Shinjuku Line), is a must-visit for fashion-conscious men, which no travel guidebook would mention. At the north-east corner stands Marui Men (or spelled OIMEN as O can read "maru" - a Japanese term for a circle), a very rare building in which all floors are devoted to stylish young menswear (recommended brands are Rupert (2nd flr), PPFM (3rd flr), Tornade Mart (3rd flr), A.S.M. (4th flr), and Scoopman (5th flr). (It's unfortunate that only Rupert has its official website. If any of these brands sets up a website and sells their clothes online in English, I believe they will earn a lot of money.) If you think I often wear stylish clothes, it owes this department store a lot.

Located diagonally opposite across the crossing is Isetan Men's, a more up-market department store building in which all floors are dedicated to menswear for stylish grown-ups. In addition, opposite to Marui Men across Yasukuni Street towers the Shinjuku Komori Building, a very low-profile but quite unusually shaped building (see left).

Actually, around this area you will see quite a few stylish young men sporting interesting pieces of clothes. On the other hand, those men in a suit are all dull-looking. It may be because those at the workplace cannot wear stylish clothes because it gives a signal to their boss or clients that they are not serious at work... Or simply because Japanese men don't look good in a suit anyway.