If you're ntemplatg a trip to Japan, then you should nsir visg Tokyo's Shju neighborhood, the largt gay district Asia.
Contents:
- THE BOYS OF SHJU: IS TOKYO'S GAY DISTRICT DOOMED?
- SHJU NICHOME: STRETCHG YOUR YEN THE GAYBORHOOD
- THE 10 BEST TOKYO GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS TOKYO
THE BOYS OF SHJU: IS TOKYO'S GAY DISTRICT DOOMED?
Tokyo's gay scene is 300 bars and clubs packed to two blocks, where, perhaps surprisgly an otherwise regimented society, has been anythg go for s. So why, asks our Tokyo rrponnt David McNeill, is the wilst party town g to an end? * japan gay district *
Only the lobby, cheerily adorned wh scen om a sex movie that pict a portly pany print beg diligently serviced by a young apprentice, do bee clear that this is one of Asia's biggt gay the ticket mache – 2, 600 yen (about £18) for a 13-hour stay – and pretty much anythg go, say guts who e om across Japan, and even abroad, to sample s treats.
"This is a untry that happily liv wh ntradictns, " says Taq Otsa, thor of several books on Japan's gay scene. " Th, Tokyo, a cy wh a reputatn as one of the most uptight, buttoned-down pals, also boasts, s Shju district, one of the world's nst and most diverse ncentratn of gay bars and clubs: the Ni-chome (pronounced "nee-chomay") area.
SHJU NICHOME: STRETCHG YOUR YEN THE GAYBORHOOD
A list of plac to eat, drk and party Shju Nichome — Tokyo's gay district — that are easy on the wallet. * japan gay district *
"But, roughly half a century sce emerged as a refuge for homosexuals what was formerly a red-light district, the block is cle.
The lol mercial anisatn that promot Ni-chome timat that the number of gay bars the area has fallen by at least a third the past . The once exclively male gay clientele is filled out at the weekends wh the straight, the female and the simply cur. "Are gays vanishg om Shju Ni-chome!?, " wonred one of the untry's most popular magaz recently.
He c the 2004 closure of the famo gay magaze Barazoku after 33 years as a key moment.
THE 10 BEST TOKYO GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS TOKYO
* japan gay district *
"That was a symbolic event when the ter overtook gay culture here.
"Ftgly, perhaps, as he shouts over the noise of the dis, Gloria Gaynor's great gay anthem "I Will Survive" poundg out of the partly mirrors the chang Japan's gay culture.
The ia that gay people uld share a life together was a fairy-tale. "Though blighted by the typil agoni of personal inty and need for secrecy, gays and lbians Japan neverthels did not suffer the same outright reprsn as those other parts of the world.