Shibuya Station is three-dimensional and has many passages and exits. JR, Tokyu and subway lines overlap.
For some reason Shibuya Station is lost.
This site also has strategies for Shinjuku Station and Tokyo Station, but compared to those huge stations, Shibuya Station is easy to get lost.
JR Shibuya Station is a labyrinth-like station that somehow gets lost even though it’s not as big as the station size.
Why is Shibuya station so easy to get lost?
Reason 1: Because the shape of the station is three-dimensional
The Subway Ginza Line coming out of the building is famous, but Shibuya Station has a very three-dimensional structure.
When it becomes a three-dimensional object, the difficulty of its space recognition ability increases.
If you look at the subway map of Shibuya Station, you will notice the complexity of its three-dimensional structure.
Shibuya Station subway map
Source: Floor plan | Shibuya Station | Tokyo Metro
It can be called a three-dimensional map rather than a floor plan, but it is too complicated to understand the shape of the station.
The subway goes deep inside, and the passages and stairs are intricately intertwined. A dungeon would be something like this.
Let’s organize it a little to understand the three-dimensional Shibuya station.
A simple 3D view of Shibuya Station
Shibuya Station has a JR line platform on the 2nd floor, which is considered the standard.
Go down the stairs to the Hachiko and South Exits, and go up the stairs at the Central and New South Exits.
The Keio Line and Metro Ginza Line platforms are at the upper level, but there is a Hanzomon Line (Country City Line) platform in the basement, and the Fukutoshin Line (Toyoko Line) platform is the deepest 5th basement. It is a structure.
To capture Shibuya Station, you should first understand this 3D structure.
Get an overview of Shibuya Station
Reason 2: The route name changes
In addition, it is easy to get lost at Shibuya Station because the route name changes at Shibuya Station.
This is because the Tokyo Metro and Tokyu Lines are directly connected to each other, but at this Shibuya Station, the Hanzomon Line becomes the Tokyu Denentoshi Line and the Fukutoshin Line becomes the Tokyu Toyoko Line.
It ’s a good idea to know exactly what destination you ’re heading to and the route you ’ll be using.
By the way, at Shibuya Station, each route is represented by a symbol.
Reason 3: No big concourse
I think this is the reason why Shibuya Station is easy to get lost.
In other words, it is the core of the station, and there is no concourse for convenient transfer between routes, so it is difficult to get an overview of the station.
Let’s look at the floor plan of Shibuya Station.
Shibuya station map
Source: tokyoseikatsu.com
This is only the JR section, but it is necessary to pass through the connecting passage to transfer these, even though there are only platforms for the Yamanote, Saikyo, and Shonan-Shinjuku lines.
If you go to the next platform at a regular station, you will have to take a long passage to transfer to Shibuya Station.
Compare with other stations.
For example, at Shinjuku Station. JR alone has up to home number 16, but there is a big concourse connecting all the homes.
Therefore, even if it is a huge station, it is easy to change trains, and at least you will not get lost by changing JR trains.
On the other hand, there is no concourse at JR Shibuya Station, so it is very difficult to move within the station even though there are only two routes.
The reason is that the Saikyo Line home is far away to the south, but moving to this Saikyo Line home is difficult.
How to get to a distant Saikyo Line home
Introducing the case of heading to the Saikyo Line home from the famous Hachiko exit.
1.First, go through the Yamanote Line platform.
2.Go up the stairs to the central ticket gate in the middle of the platform.
3.Walk along the access path from the side of the central ticket gate.
At the end of the passage is the Saikyo Line home.
As you can see, Saikyo Line Home requires a long passage and a platform movement, which takes time.
The long passage and long time required for this transfer are Shibuya Station’s specialties. Besides this, the transfer between JR and private railway / metro is equally difficult.
