Japanese people are very polite and well organized, it makes the crowded trains not an issue

Finding out how to leave that station was actually more hellish than finding the right line to go on to get home.

As a note, common practices if you are stuck after the last trains is staying at a net or manga cafe (or adult dvd lol), which are open 24/7 and allow temporary or night stays and even often have showers and private booths you can recline/sleep in. Convenience stores are also open 24/7 usually. Alternatively, you can just stay out drinking until 4 AM. Usually people will just remind you about last trains though. You are not necessarily stranded in a now dead city like you would be in other parts of the world.

What a shocker that this guy would celebrate communism-infected China 😆🤦🏻‍♂️

The entire place looks exceedingly claustrophobic.

Weird that it closes at night

“Women only.” Huh, weird, I wonder why that’s a thing… 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Shout out to the kid at 14:33 - we all started somewhere with our mass transit and urbanism enthusiasm!

Great video, thank you!

I’ve been living in Tokyo for nearly 20 years but Shinjuku is one of the top places I would avoid stopping and taking a transit train. By structure confusion levels I think it’s on par with Shibuya station. I’d like to say the Shinjuku dungeon as to say the same thing as the Osaka Umeda dungeon

Actually the busiest station in the world would be cst railway station in mumbai... More than 3.8 million passengers served daily

On my first visit to Japan last year, I arrived in Shinjuku station after taking the Narita Express (or it could have been the Keisei Skyliner) and changing to the Yamanote line. I wouldn't call it a nightmare to navigate it but it was TOUGH. Maybe the fact that I had an 8 hour layover in HCMC before taking a redeye budget flight to Narita had something to do with it. As a Singaporean, when I hear "train interchange station" I automatically assume something like "City Hall" or "Orchard Road" station (which are rather busy stations in my country). But boy was I wrong because Shinjuku station was absolutely MASSIVE. First thing I did was to immediately get out of the station so I could get a breather. At that time I had no idea that the Marunouchi line wasn't connected to the JR lines so I couldn't just enter via the JR gantries. This was very different from what I was used to in Singapore where you have only 2 train operators and it doesn't matter which gantry you used. I remember going up and down the escalator at 8:42 with my luggage trying to find the entrance into the underground part of the station. And that was just the easy part because finding the entrance for the Marunoichi line was just as difficult too. Thankfully I managed to get some help from the tourism department and the station staff, using my limited Japanese that I learnt from a decade of watching anime. I would go as far to say that learning how to navigate Shinjuku station deserves a milestone of life. 😅

I have terrible spacial orientation skills, yet during my visit in Tokyo, I was able to navigate the metro and everything it involves perfectly. The Berlin Metro (U-Bahn and S-Bahn) on the other often hand stresses me out

Am in holland and the gates annoy me and now that i know it could be better am annoyed

Aww dude what an amazing video. Please come to Taipei and tear Taipei Main Station apart to shreds thank you

東京都西部は関東大震災と米軍による絨毯爆撃の二度の壊滅的ダメージによって人口が急増して繁栄する大きな機会となりました 新宿:新(New)宿(Inn)は江戸時代までは都心から離れた郊外でした

14:31 that kid is just literally, uh, me, a grown adult.

The highway system in Tokyo is also privatized and charges tolls to drivers

If you want a crowded train try getting on the southbound Mita line train at Jimbocho during the morning rush

Transferring at Shinjuku is easy. Trying to enter or exit where you want to go is much harder.

Just get a Suica on your iPhone. simple.

yayyyy Eggslut!!! it still there after all these years since i last was there. ☺

stayed here for over a week part of our japan trip and uses Shinjuku station daily and weirdly second nature cos it was so easy to use to get around by using Google map.

The talk of fare gates reminded me of the time when I got my transit card lost in my bag and hopped the gate, just to get called out by a security/ticket dude. The conversation went like that: “Hey, you! You hopped the gate!” “I have free transit, here’s my disabled person’s licence.” “But- you just hopped the gate!” “I don’t make the rules, now do I?” For context - I don’t need to have a valid ticket with me, and my transit card is just set to automatically open any gates I tap it to, so if I can’t find my card or the RFID chip gets funky with me I often just jump the turnstile-style gate instead.

The talk of fare gates reminded me of the time when I got my transit card lost in my bag and hopped the gate, just to get called out by a security/ticket dude. The conversation went like that: “Hey, you! You hopped the gate!” “I have free transit, here’s my disabled person’s licence.” “But- you just hopped the gate!” “I don’t make the rules, now do I?” For context - I don’t need to have a valid ticket with me, and my transit card is just set to automatically open any gates I tap it to, so if I can’t find my card or the RFID chip gets funky with me I often just jump the turnstile-style gate instead.

I remember trying to walkthrough shinjuku station to reach a destination on the other side of it only to get lost four an hour before giving up and opting to take a huge detour walking around it.

“Oh, ‘Take the blue line’ they said.“ “Which one? Light blue or dark blue? Which blue line?”

Thinking about road infrastructure as business is not straightforward. In isolation it will be always a loss. The profit is the indirect one that is generated by the possibilities that results to that infrastructure. Seems Japan done it by making public transport a side source to their retails. They literally making their own footfall, and who knows what type of coupons they print at their own tickets? Accounting perspective that's a deep rabbithole. This is why privatising Public Transport is a tricky situation, because a private company must make profit or rely on government subsidies. But a council/gov managed PT is different. Roads and PT allows people to live and work in areas, and the "profit" is the tax revenue that will never appear in the transport budget...

Very interesting. I thought until now Japanese trains are super good. Berlins A100 can move about 220 thousand cars. Maybe 400k people per day. Its 8 lanes. Now imagine you have to move 3 Million people. It must be 60 or 70 lanes wide. Horrible. 17:41 So good that Germany has the 49€-Deutschland-Ticket. You can use all public transport trains for 49€/month. Even regional rail which connects cities whose are close.

It's like the whole population of Latvia crossing this station daily.....twice!

Did Blud really take a vacation to Japan but made content to make it a business expense? 💀💀💀 I appreciate the hustle.

All of our wide roads in Tokyo are firebreaks. You might see that as having too many wide roads, but they are life-savers. There are probably better uses for them, but they really do serve a purpose. The devastation of the 1923 quake should show why.

Funny how other countries outside of the US and Canada operate better in urban planning, public transportation, recycling, traffic flows, highways, health and care and much much more. Why do many Japanese ware masks, that is one thing I have realized about Japan, even before COVID.

You mentioned lot of positives in japan and I agree with you on that but what about the negatives? The worst thing I saw in tokyo is the noisy vehicles with super loud noise ! I heaved never seen that level of noise especially in the weekends lot of customized sport cars with the highest level of noise and they are always inside cities not on highway like other countries not to mention they have they the worst motorcycles with very loud noise and many times I see them go inside pedestrians area and park there without any care of people ! What contradictions. They have many strict laws, and I do not see any law against disturbing people in the residence and inside the cities!

13:46 I would've gone with Eggwhore.

I wish you could review Umeda station in Osaka! I find it absolutely mind-boggling, I never have any idea of where to go or where things are. The way the ticket gates are underground, some "exits" are underground tunnels leading to other areas, others bring you directly into a shopping mall!

Using property and retail business to compensate the loss of transportation business were the key element why Japanese public and private train operator were so efficient. Since goverment in Japan were unwilling to spend much money to subsidie train operaton and also Japan train need affordable, the solution is develop business outside transportation sector. It is common in Asia Pacific use this strategy.

12:26 subtitles on: "dude's going through Copium like sh*t through a goose" 💀💀

The subtitles are something else 😂 10:17 "I bet you haven't heard this ringtone in about 15 years" I've never heard it, lol. Also, it finally helped me understand what Reece was saying. I've always heard "I like traz as much as the next guy"

I just love this train/bus station. Will be going back there soon

When China high speed rail/mass transit video? They have more high speed rail than the rest of the world combined.

Texas would never

So nice that people wait for passengers to get off the train before they walk in. Here in Los Angeles people push in before you have a chance to get out.

The stuff about wayfinding is funny because despite rebuilding itself and having only a tiny fraction of the complexity, Toronto's Union Station is somehow still difficult to navigate. Just put clear signs! Why is this so hard!

We tend to avoid Shinjuku station but when we have to pass through there we never have any problems navigating. The only real thing to keep in mind is to avoid rush hour and you’re gold.

It’s a massive pain. If you don’t speak Japanese you have to rely on the logic of the system. I got lost twice in the station before I got the hang of the station.

Every since you did the Switzerland train video I’ve been waiting for you to do the Japan train video, so thank you

Can you imagine that many Americans trying to use that station? All of them wandering around aimlessly, trying to do their own thing, buried in their electronic devices? It would be chaotic gridlock. The Japanese KNOW how to walk, how to "fit" into communal spaces. Americans could literally not make this work...and that's not a jibe on our size. It's a commentary on our society, culture, and expectations.

I miss the old Odakyu Department Store building that used to sit over the west exit of the station. So many childhood memories there.

It's true that you'll be charged every time you changed companies, but my first impression of the European tram and metro (railways) was "so expensive!" I believe it's something more than the price difference between us