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Comment by SapporoChris | Hacker News Reader

Please don't do this. The station is very busy and the commuters do not have time to navigate around people focused on their smartphones.

Instead, familiarize yourself with the general layout. There's no need to memorize the entire map, only the portion you will be using. Inside the station there are plenty of signs overhead and even on the floor to help navigate.

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How do you expect tourists, including people coming from other regions of Japan, to familiarize themselves with the layout?

I've been in Shinjuku few times, I've always got lost.

Found a "hack" where I would go upstairs to the mall and then go down closer to the spot I need.

Shinjuku is way too massive (and now has plenty of diversions due to work om the station itself) to be understood easily by a tourist.

I always tell friends to just go to any east exit and make their way outside. That's most likely where they're headed and it's easier to navigate outside the station than inside.

The signs are incredibly confusing and often will all point to each other from every direction.

Do you have an example? Your comment seems like an exaggeration, I have never seen any signs pointing to each other from every direction.

Also, I am curious of the justification. Why would anyone place signs that "... are incredibly confusing and often will all point to each other from every direction."

The problem I would typically have (not just in Shinjuku) was with directions that did not repeat/update as you continued on through junction points. It made navigation more stressful.

No they aren't. People who say this have never spent a significant amount of time there.

Yes they are. Every time I visit Tokyo I try to avoid Shinjuku because it is extremely confusing and I always get lost.

Signs are mostly useful for people who are new to a place, if you need a significant amount of time to familiarize yourself then they are useless.

No, it's incorrect that signs "point to each other."

There are multiple ways to get to various lines' platforms. This is not signs pointing to each other, this is signs in different places pointing to the same destination.

I live in Tokyo and while I do not go through Shinjuku often as I mostly live and work on the east side, I have no issue using the signs to find the platforms and exits I am looking for.

If you pay attention to what the signs have written on them, they will take you where you are trying to go.

TIL 21 years is not enough time to notice confusing signs.

Two signs pointing at each other (I've seen way more of this but here is one example): https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSe-8IR...

In addition to signs pointing to each other, you also see several signs at once pointing to the same thing in opposite directions: https://skyticket.jp/guide/wp-content/uploads/pixta_46188735...

Or signs pointing the same direction for both East and West exits: https://basyauma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_5141-2-1...

and https://owl-eat-drink.s3.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/tokyo/...

Same thing at Ikebukuro: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....

There are many, many more examples of this.

All of those signs legitimately point towards the destinations on them. I don't understand what your argument is.

Not only that but Shinjuku is under massive renovation work which makes the signs genuinely outdated at times.

For what it's worth I was joking. I've only been Shinjuku as a tourist, so I unfortunately won't be able to familiarise myself with the layout, but I do feel your pain. I've seen the same thing in smaller stations in the London and absolutely hate it.

I appreciate your comment.

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