The city of Tokyo that is bustling during the day and lit up in colourful neon lights by night is an amazing sight of cosmopolitan beauty. Shinjuku too is part of this lovely city and is an administrative centre of Tokyo. It has quite a history about how it came to be, let’s peek into the story of Shinjuku.
![Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden | Image Credit: By Daderot [Public domain], <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shinjuku_Gyoen_National_Garden_-_DSC05100.JPG">from Wikimedia Commons</a>](https://www.wellknownplaces.com/blog-data/uploads/2018/07/Shinjuku_Gyoen_National_Garden_-_DSC05100.jpg)
Naitō-Shinjuku
In the Edo passé, there existed a station built by the Naito clan which was called Naito Shinjuku. The word Shinjuku literally means ‘new living spaces’. Back in the 1600s, Samurai lords would travel from Koshu-kaido which was to the western side of the Shogunate castle would stop by at Shinjuku to rest for a while on their travels. The Naito clan was a daimyo family to whom a mansion in Shinjuku belonged to.
Shinjuku experimental station
In order to better the agricultural sector in 1872, the government set up Naito Shinjuku Experimental Station. Here, research was conducted on various techniques to cultivate fruits, vegetables, sericulture and stock farming. Later some of the functions performed at this station were passed on to others by the government and in 1879, the Shinjuku Experimental Station was renamed as Shinjuku Gyoen Botanical Garden.
Shinjuku in destruction
The town of Shinjuku on the year 1920 was absorbed into Tokyo, the city began to develop further after the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake that hit the country in 1923. The air raids that occurred in 1945 destroyed most of the buildings that had come up.
Present Shinjuku
The city that was once fixated on the development of agriculture in the Edo period is no filled with skyscrapers and shopping malls. One can say it is more or less a concrete jungle with lodging options like Citadines Shinjuku Tokyo which is an apartment hotel. Shinjukustreets are lined with a plethora of noodle shops and other street food outlets. It is a city that is abuzz day and night.
Fritzjames Stephen is a travel writer, who writes content based on the myriad of experiences and indulgences that the world has to offer travellers across all walks of life. Google+
