Omoide Yokocho

Omoide Yokocho (思い出横丁) is a row of narrow alleys at the West Exit of Shinjuku Station. According to the local merchants' association, about 80 businesses are packed in here on about 630 tsubo, about 2,080 square meters: about 60 places to eat and drink, more than half of them yakitori and motsuyaki (offal skewers), alongside money changers and ticket shops. At the edges there are also branches of fast-food chains.

According to the association, around 1946 food stalls stood here on the ruins left after the war, and they burned down completely. In their place rose a black market of stalls separated by a wooden board, called 'Lucky Street'. Around 1947 flour and other staples were under strict control, but offal from the occupying army was not, so many stalls switched to grilling it. Around 1959, with the expansion of the subway and the construction of the station building, about 300 businesses treated as squatting on the land were evicted, and only the section reaching Ome Road remained.

On 24 November 1999 a fire broke out here. According to a 2020 article in Gendai, it destroyed about a third of the alley. In the middle alley rebuilding was impossible because of the road access rules, so the businesses there were renovated around the existing columns. The association set 24 November as 'Omoide Yokocho Day'.