This may fall under the category of "I'm the last to know..."

I have been connecting between Toei Oedo line and Keio line now for three weeks. Hyperdia says that it is a "six minute" walk. In the mornings going up the two long escalators, going out the turnstiles, and then walking through the Keio Mall it would take around six minutes. In the afternoon, as I have always been in a forward car near the exit steps and I walk down the escalators, I have been able to make the reverse walk in around five minutes.

Yesterday, I noticed that there was an alternate path from the rear of the train (when returning to Shinjuku). I took that path and found myself at the top of the escalator towards the Oedo line without going through the Keio Mall or any turnstiles. This morning, I went down the path (at the 10 o'clock position when exiting the top escalator) and found myself at the Track 3 Car 1 position in around two minutes instead of six. As Car 1 (or 2) is where I want to be on the other end, this works wonders. By entrance of path is sign with "3, 2, 1" for the Keio tracks.

There are a couple of small drawbacks. This only gets you to Track 3. Getting to Tracks 1 or 2 would require you to go down Track 3 a while and then go up stairs and cross over to the other two tracks. This isn't an impact for me as the express trains always leave from Track 3. The second drawback is that I can't use the "pay for 10 get 11" multiple Keio tickets. Yesterday, I used one and then went to an add fare machine at Azabu Juban. Going the other way, I just used Passnet card. I will probably use up my remaining multiple tickets on the returns over next week and then not bother to buy them anymore.

Hope this helps others. I had been looking at station maps and had noticed that Keio trains depart to the South which made me think that there should be another entrance. However, I believed Hyperdia when they said that you could make a two minute connection to Keio New Line but it took at least six to connect to Keio Line; definitely not true.

Marc