Hacker News Reader

Comment by modeless | Hacker News Reader

Relatedly, I just started playing this game where the concept is you're lost in the corridors of a Japanese subway station looking for Exit 8. Very authentic feel.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2653790/The_Exit_8/

View on HN

Why limit yourself to walking when you can build them :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1122120/STATIONflow/

Or drive them :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2546690/Tram_Simulator_Ur...

That’s so funny, I spent about an hour walking around Osaka station the first time I went there trying to figure out how to get out. Ended up back in same place quite a few times. Near the Hankyuu railway staircase.

In my backpacker days I once stored a backpack in a locker in Osaka and went out for the day. It took me quite a while to find it again!

LTP: Take pictures of the where you've stored your luggage/bags, "with" surroundings. That way you'll have a much easier time finding it. Especially in larger stations around Japan. Saved my ass in Shinjuku this year.

Do this for cars in parking lots too.

LPT

Omg, snap! I didn’t do it again after that. Also for the idea mentioned about taking photos. No camera phones back when I was doing this and it was actually in Japan that I bought my first proper digital camera, the Canon Ixus 3 I think iirc

I got lost in Kyoto station the day I had to catch a train to Osaka to take a plane from KIX. So many platforms, different train lines, exits. It's crazy.

Somehow I've always done fine at Shinjuku, although during rush hour it can be trickier.

Osaka is notorious for very poor exit labelling

Reminds me of the time I tried to leave a Japanese train station and wound up in an underground department store. Then I tried to leave the department store and I wound back up in the train station.

I had this experience in real life in Shinjuku station. It was the first station I needed to navigate when showing up to Japan. I didn’t care about which exit I went out of, I was just trying to get up to the surface so I could see where I was at with GPS and orient myself. After the flight (I don’t sleep on planes), I was very stressed out and sleep deprived. I tried to look like I knew what I was doing, but I was freaking out inside, I felt trapped. It was a really bad time. Thankfully, after some sleep, navigating the subway went much better.

This reminds me of an internet phenomenon I learnt about recently: the Backrooms [1]. The concept instantly reminded me of some psychedelic horrors from the 80s in terms of emotional response. I think this game might trigger a similar response.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Backrooms

Lol! This is all too close to reality. Gives me goosebumps.

There's also a few metro station sims (more sim than horror):

STATIONflow: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1122120/STATIONflow/

Overcrowd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/726110/Overcrowd_A_Commut...

And of course Mini Metro: https://store.steampowered.com/app/287980/Mini_Metro/

mini metro my beloved

and of course, mini motorways

such fun little puzzle games, I spent a good month absolutely absorbed in the latter, thought I was getting pretty skilled - only to look online and realize that there levels of strats I hadn't even considered.

I love the concept of this game, very well thought and engaging

It's impossible to get lost in in a Japanese subway.They have made their subway systems so even the most confused people can figure it out.

I managed to get lost there. An incredibly nice person stopped and asked in English - I’m a tall white person - if I needed help and insisted on walking me to my exit, several minutes out of her way.

I love Japan and traveling around there is easy.

This is very Japanese. My experience was that if you ask for help directly from a stranger, they will stammer and be flustered and not be so helpful; but if you stand around and look like the lost tourist you are, within a minute or two somebody will approach you and offer to help.

An incredibly nice Japanese person in subway who cares.

Shinjuku station is a special case because it is so huge.

More precisely, the problem is not the train/subway station part of the station, that part is surprisingly easy to navigate. The problem is when you leave the station. There are 200 exits, and there is a good chance you end up in a place you didn't expect.

You just need to memorize this handy song then https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpKbR_iHwio :-)

It's definitely possible. Try meitetsu station sometime. It's directly adjacent to the sprawling monstrosity that is Nagoya station (where it's also easy to get lost). Not only does it use a different, color-coded system of notation than other stations I've seen, trains stop at multiple platforms unlike virtually everywhere else. Consequently there are places where multiple signs are visible giving you different directions to the same train.

Many people skip Nagoya on their typical “visit Japan” trip and the trains there can be underwhelming compared to Tokyo/Osaka, so while I agree with you, it sounds like a case of OP not deviating from the “blessed path”.

And great, now I want red miso.

I also found in my recent two week vacation that it was easy 99% of the time, thanks to good signage and Google Maps. But I did miss one sign in a way that was difficult to recover from; if my partner hadn't noticed it I might have gone pretty far before I realized my mistake.

You should try going to Shinjuku with the Oedo line and change to the Odakyu line, it's an experience.

This one isn’t as bad as long as you know that many Oedo transfers are a pain due to just how far underground it is. Oedo in Shinjuku should, once you finally make your way up, be near enough signs indicating where Odakyu is.

This one is pretty messy right now as they're redoing the building, but yes with enough RPG skills one should find the way. Conversely, I've been avoiding Shibuya with all the construction, didn't know it also touched the Tsutaya/Starbucks building.

I take it you've never been to Nagoya?

I love all the people responding with “Nagoya” to this because this was my first thought too.

OT but since multiple others are mentioning Nagoya: what's the best place to get some sweetened miso in mayo bottle thing(the tsukete-miso) around or inside Nagoya station?

I mean, I'm guessing I can just buy online, but it's something Nagoyans refuse to admit that every household in Nagoya/Aichi has one despite all having one in their fridge. It's almost strange there isn't an akafuku and kakete-miso bundle package in souvenir shops.

Osaka makes it possible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com