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Old Jan 10, 2015, 1:48 am
  #48  
LapLap
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: London
Posts: 18,405
Originally Posted by joer1212
Actually, the hardest part of navigating Tokyo is going to be when I exit a metro station, and there is no point of reference to know where I am because the streets have no name.
If you had the Kodansha City Atlas and could find your destination you would also be able to pick out the number of the exit required from the map and head for that, there is clear wayfinding in all the stations to help you identify the numbered exits. So no, that is not necessarily the hardest part.

If you were forced to use an elevator route because of a wheelchair or a child's buggy, that would be tricky, but you aren't.

Granted, it can get a bit difficult in some of the "super" stations, such as Tokyo station itself, Shinjuku or, as is recently the case since its expansion, Shibuya, but these problems are not severe or insurmountable and the major stations also have major landmarks around. The map shows many of the shop names and other stand out details which can be identified quickly once you emerge disorientated from the Nether's portals.

I consider myself to be a serial tourist to Japan, particularly to Tokyo. When I am alone or alone with my child I have been consistently offered over the past 10 years unsolicited help and assistance any time I have stopped to pour over my paperback atlas or have looked quizzically at a large map. I interacted with many people in Tokyo during my last visit in late Spring 2014, but one of the most gracious was an elegant lady at Shinjuku station who went out of her way to accompany me through to my destination. I was transferring from a rail line and needed to get to a particular exit so that I could continue my journey to Azabu Juban by bus, the child with me was asleep so I was hoisting her which made referring to any kind of map impossible for me. It is a genuine surprise to me that there are posters here who find the people in Tokyo to be too aloof or shy to be helpful, this is completely outside of my own experience. I can only surmise that it will depend to some extent on you and how "approachable" others find you.
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