Shimbashi is a district between here and Tsukiji, and has really been developed in the past decade into a zone of monstrous skyscrapers. At the center is a large complex called "Shiodome," connecting about a dozen giant buildings through a maze of underground tunnels and at least three different train stations. We came here once last year for the Advertising Museum, and got incredibly lost, and I wanted to explore this area more before coming back. Of course I got lost numerous times, and maps like the one above (which seems like a map for a small country) did not provide all that much help. The few times I asked people for directions, I was told that even people working in the Shiodome found it hard to navigate.
I was determined to get to an observation deck on one of these buildings, and finally found an information counter. I figured if I could find out which skyscraper had a deck, I'd just go outside and walk toward it, but I was told to go underground and wander the labyrinth.
And this was the strangest part about wandering in this area. There are tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people working here, and passing through the stations, and yet there are also these large amazingly empty spaces, like the corridor above, or the huge stairway below, or below that, the underground pavilion connecting different stations. This phenomenon is exaggerated in a place like the Shiodome, but is nonetheless true for much of Tokyo--that there will be moments and spots of incredible crowding and massive numbers of people, and then areas that--in the middle of a Tuesday--are bizarrely empty.
Shimbashi is a district between here and Tsukiji, and has really been developed in the past decade into a zone of monstrous skyscrapers. At the center is a large complex called "Shiodome," connecting about a dozen giant buildings through a maze of underground tunnels and at least three different train stations. We came here once last year for the Advertising Museum, and got incredibly lost, and I wanted to explore this area more before coming back. Of course I got lost numerous times, and maps like the one above (which seems like a map for a small country) did not provide all that much help. The few times I asked people for directions, I was told that even people working in the Shiodome found it hard to navigate.
I was determined to get to an observation deck on one of these buildings, and finally found an information counter. I figured if I could find out which skyscraper had a deck, I'd just go outside and walk toward it, but I was told to go underground and wander the labyrinth.
And this was the strangest part about wandering in this area. There are tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people working here, and passing through the stations, and yet there are also these large amazingly empty spaces, like the corridor above, or the huge stairway below, or below that, the underground pavilion connecting different stations. This phenomenon is exaggerated in a place like the Shiodome, but is nonetheless true for much of Tokyo--that there will be moments and spots of incredible crowding and massive numbers of people, and then areas that--in the middle of a Tuesday--are bizarrely empty.
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