These alleys of shoddy two-storey buildings in Shinjuku house 200 bars, one "police box", a Shinto shrine and a motley population of mama-sans, transvestites, former prostitutes and 60s radicals.

It is vintage post-war Tokyo in all its cramped, chaotic glory. The bars - most of them big enough only for a counter and a dozen or so stools - are housed in buildings of wood and corrugated iron thrown up for hookers and pimps during the allied occupation.

Several decades have passed since Golden-gai was primarily a lure to the libido, but the narrow lanes have not entirely lost the feel of a red-light district. When business is slow and the air muggy, the silhouettes of mama-sans (some of whom are actually middle-aged men) can be seen in pink-lit doorways as they fan them selves and listen to scratchy records of Edith Piaf or experimental jazz.

In the 60s and 70s most of the brothel-keepers were replaced by counter-culture dropouts who turned the area into a hub of political conspiracy and intellectual foment. At its peak it attracted thinkers such as the author Yukio Mishima and the film-maker Nagisa Oshima.

Directors, painters and writers are still drawn to an area that refuses to make way for rampant materialism. Shadow, a bar run for more than 20 years by a communist, is decorated with items found in rubbish dumps. Jetee, owned by a former film distributor, includes Wim Wenders and Juliette Binoche among its occasional customers.

A few strides to the west are the blazing neon lights and noisy pachinko parlours of the ultra-sleazy Kabukicho sex district; behind are the futuristic 40-storey towers of the municipal government offices in Shinjuku.

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Look for the starship that appears to have landed next to the sumo stadium, and ascend the umbilical escalator into the belly. The next thing you know you're crossing a wooden bridge and a couple of centuries back to old Edo within this fascinating museum that brings the history of Tokyo to life. The displays range from entire city districts with thousands of miniature city-dwellers that you can examine through bincoluars, to a life-size kabuki theatre to be explored. Witness the changes in the life of the city brought on by increased contact with the world outside Japan, and finally by war.

Ryogoku on the Oedo or Sobu lines.

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