Shinjuku is laid out on either side of a huge railway station. The west side (Nishi-Shinjuku) is a dizzying forest of skyscrapers with wide avenues and some 300 000 salarymen; to the east, Higashi-Shinjuku is a sprawling shopping area, whose neon lights flash day and night. From Kabuki-cho, the red-light district, to Golden Gai and its tiny bars, and not forgetting the park, Shinjuku-Gyoen, Shinjuku is a cocktail of ambiences.