Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-11-15
GET UP AND GO!
j Tokyo by Night Is Goudy
BY JACK JONAS
star Travel Editor

Tokyo by night is a gaudy
city.
Times Square pales In COM
parison with the Gina shop
ping and entertainment district
In Japan's capital.
Your first impression as you
step into the broad main, stem
Is that you are viewing the
widest scenes from Disney's
Fantasia" The multi-storied,
varicolored neon signs puncture
the night like the Fourth Of
July at Washington Monument.
Realistically fancy night
clubs beckon at virtually every
corner. In these. the costumes,
when worn, are brilliantly
exotic. Jazz is q major in
gredient Of the shows.
The Queen Bee. one Of the
city's largest, has 200 hostesses
and two bands for continuous
dancing. It's trademark is Q
huge stained glass window.
Other plush spots are the Mi
matsu, the Monte Carlo and the
Benibasha.
Many Of Tokyo's 5000 coffee
houses can be found In the
Gina. But such coffee houses.
Big Coffee Houses
At the Vie Lai Shan near
shimbashi Station. for example.
an elevator bandstand carries
the orchestra to each Of three
floors. The Shirobasha coffee
house, with its Napoleonic
decor including royal purple
walls bedecked with cupids,
cliinaware and pools of gold
fish, has six floors. The band
stand is visible from each floor.
Just q step away are dim,
narrow alleys, lined with more
bars and entertainment spots.
Your shoulders, as you walk
through, Craze the walls at
many points.
In the interest of compare
tive reporting, we explored both
the bright Gina and the dim
alleys. Our passport and ready
cash were locked away in the
Imperial Hotel safe, and we
had nothing to lose but our
head.
We found no blind alleys.
The ones we explored always
led somewhere-back to a side
street-although they twisted
right or left several times.
Along the way, swinging door
bars were alive with jazz.
Many Vendors
Many of these tiny bars had
no more than half a dozen
seats, but almost all Of them
had a hostess-less kindly
termed the bar girl-to further
the buying of drinks.
Noodle vendors, walnut VEN
doris, fruit vendors, sidewalk
artists, silhouette cutters and
flower girls-along with vendors
of less proper wares-teem in
the Gina at night.
Streetside shoe shine women
worked late-perhaps waiting
for customers to return to
claim the piles of newly pol
ished shoes at their sides.
The nightclub people go after
customers with all the zeal OF
a secondhand clothing mer-
chant. We were approached
countless times by boys and
men touting ION limits" night
spots, as we emerged from the
side streets once more.
All of this shuts down Off
cially at midnight.
Restaurants, however, can go
on past the witching hour, and
there are several reputable
after-midnight spots operated
on the private club" principle.
One of these is the Manuela,
hard by the Imperial Hotel. Of
fering dinner and entertain
ment into the small hours. An
other is the Hibiya. with a
small combo, a Hawaiian band
and three floor shows after
1880 pm. The cover charge is
but $50 yen-about 40 cents
but there are no hostesses.
Even the policemen in Tokyo
at night seem gaudy. Scoring
flashlights, they carry paper
lanterns to light their way and