[HN Gopher] 3D Map of Shinjuku Station in Three.js
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       3D Map of Shinjuku Station in Three.js
        
       Author : brw
       Score  : 167 points
       Date   : 2023-12-27 20:50 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (satoshi7190.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (satoshi7190.github.io)
        
       | brw wrote:
       | Technical write-up (in Japanese) here:
       | https://qiita.com/satoshi7190/items/23d192372877af75b283
        
       | jareklupinski wrote:
       | early 2010's, i land for the first time in Japan, with vague
       | instructions to meet my AirBnB host "by the entrance to Shinjuku
       | Station"
       | 
       | story ended happily after finding a hotspot and sending an email,
       | but this visualization makes that instruction seem even more
       | hilarious in hindsight
       | 
       | a pin pointing out a location using this map would be a perfect
       | waypoint!
        
         | TacticalCoder wrote:
         | > early 2010's, i land for the first time in Japan, with vague
         | instructions to meet my AirBnB host "by the entrance to
         | Shinjuku Station"
         | 
         | A famous and much easier one in Tokyo is to meet at the dog
         | [1]. Now, granted, it's in Shibuya and not in Shinjuku.
         | 
         | Darn do I miss Tokyo...
         | 
         | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D
        
           | Larrikin wrote:
           | Shibuya station atleast vaguely makes sense, even after all
           | the construction.
           | 
           | I firmly believe that the only people who can truly navigate
           | Shinjuku station, are people who work there and people who
           | live there. Seems like no matter what, Google maps/Yahoo will
           | tell you exit via b14 and every exit sign will helpfully
           | guide you to North East, East, and all the exits a1 through
           | a10.
           | 
           | It's always easier to exit the station and then figure out
           | your final destination, which can still be annoyingly hard.
        
             | Klonoar wrote:
             | A fun skill to have is knowing how to reliably navigate
             | Shinjuku in the rain without ever seeing rain - purely by
             | moving via the underground, since it connects pretty far
             | (e.g Sanchome).
        
         | nox100 wrote:
         | the smart way to do it is to name an exit like Exit B5 or A12.
         | The signs in the station, and Google Maps, will generally tell
         | how to get to a specific exit. Or probably better would be a
         | famous landmarks tho there aren't many to pick from in
         | Shinjuku. A common one used to be "in front of the Alta
         | building on the east exit" another still is "in front of the
         | police station just outside the east exit
        
         | dfxm12 wrote:
         | Zoom in on shunjuku station with google maps. All those yellow
         | boxes with letters and numbers are various exits/entrances. I
         | wonder which one which entrance was meant as "the" entrance.
         | I'm sure it was the one they use every day, but that wouldn't
         | help a visitor. It's kinda surprising someone like an AirBnB
         | host, who presumably has to communicate this with many
         | travelers from many places, is so vague about it.
         | 
         | If you're getting directions via google maps and you have to
         | exit a subway station in Tokyo (and maybe some other cities),
         | it will give you directions underground to the proper exit. It
         | will even tell you which _subway car_ you should be on so you
         | will be closest to the proper exit.
         | 
         | https://www.google.com/maps/place/Shinjuku+Station/@35.69166...
        
           | jonhohle wrote:
           | In 2010 AirBnB would have been more novel, so maybe there
           | wasn't the same expectation. I stayed on Seoul a few months
           | ago and in addition to a specific entrance number, my host
           | had made a YouTube video showing a first person walk from the
           | subway exit to his place.
        
             | jareklupinski wrote:
             | yup my host profusely apologized and emailed me back with
             | the specific exit and a line i could use to ask locals for
             | directions, but when we met I felt he was almost
             | disappointed that I didn't get that we were obviously to
             | meet by the entrance closest to the road which led to the
             | property (it was his apartment that he was renting out for
             | the summer because his family goes somewhere north for the
             | summer)
             | 
             | obvious to someone who goes there every day yes, but not to
             | a jet-lagged traveler visiting for the first time :)
             | 
             | i enjoyed being in the first cohort of airbnb guests,
             | quirks and all; felt more 'personable'
             | 
             | but yea I also remember that being probably the last year I
             | felt comfortable traveling somewhere without a mobile
             | device constantly connected
        
         | tkgally wrote:
         | I moved to Japan in 1983, and for the first few years I lived
         | and worked near Shinjuku Station and passed through it every
         | day. I also spent most of my free time in the Shinjuku area and
         | wandered around exploring a lot. It took a full year before I
         | really knew the area and could find any entrance or tunnel
         | without getting lost. The station has changed and grown a lot
         | since, and acquiring that sense would take even longer today.
         | 
         | As it happens, I will be going to Shinjuku later today for the
         | first time in four years to meet an old friend for lunch. I
         | spent some time online yesterday looking at photos and
         | streetview of the area. My friend has been living in the Tokyo
         | area as long as I have and used to go to Shinjuku a lot, too.
         | But he doesn't use a smartphone and we're meeting on the south
         | side of the station, which has changed a lot. So I prepared a
         | four-page PDF with maps and pictures showing where we will
         | meet, and I told my friend to print it out and bring it along.
         | I hope we're able to find each other.
        
         | makeitdouble wrote:
         | I learned to never let people dictate rendez-vous points at
         | landmarks or stations if I can.
         | 
         | It never makes sense. If it's a landmark or sizeable train/bus
         | station there must be a cafe or a park with notable features
         | nearby. If it's in the middle of nowhere there will be a bench
         | at an easy to describe place.
         | 
         | Telling people to stand in wide and potentially crowded areas
         | for a significant amount of time if they dare coming early is
         | just cruel.
         | 
         | PS: for people using Hachiko as a meeting place, there's a
         | Starbucks right the other side of the crosswalk dammit.
        
         | T-R wrote:
         | Shinjuku station has also changed dramatically from all the
         | construction over the last 10 or so years. I lived in Shinjuku
         | (the ward; I was actually a few stations north on the Oedo
         | line) in 2009/2010; was back there a few weeks ago and it was
         | unrecognizeable. Right now, the whole area over by the
         | Yodobashi Camera, and where they used to have the night bus
         | pickup is all walled off under active construction (if they
         | haven't finished already).
        
       | tamimio wrote:
       | Looks amazing!
       | 
       | Off topic: I like how I understood the technical article below
       | despite not knowing a single Japanese word, only by reading the
       | code, would be interesting sometime in the future that people are
       | using programming languages as a mean of universal communication!
        
         | rtsil wrote:
         | Assuming the code is written using English words. Here in
         | France it's not rare to come across a codebase that uses French
         | naming for variables and functions, or even a mix of English
         | and French:                 void deleteCartes(Map[] cartes)
        
           | clement_b wrote:
           | are you vraiment sure?
        
       | esrh wrote:
       | Very cool!
       | 
       | I also like these hand drawn 3d illustrations of stations:
       | https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/industry/x-ray-visio...
        
         | tecleandor wrote:
         | After visiting your link I've been looking for a while to see
         | newer drawings from Tanaka, but they've lost the domain for
         | their architecture studio site, and he has the same name than
         | Godzilla's creator, so it took me a while but here's his
         | updated studio site, where you can find more drawings on the
         | "works" section.
         | 
         | http://tassaa.html.xdomain.jp/index.html
        
       | robin_reala wrote:
       | You might also like a similar thing for London Underground
       | stations from 2012: https://stations.aeracode.org/
        
       | MyFirstSass wrote:
       | Okay this is awesome!
       | 
       | I feel like 3d visualisations are under utilised in general, for
       | wayfinding, for organising stuff or files, revealing flows like
       | here.
       | 
       | It's like we're stuck in a 2d paradigm somehow, but everytime i
       | see even rather simple visualizations like this, i'm reminded of
       | 90's cybernetic future that never happened.
        
       | immy wrote:
       | Would love a library of these maps for places all over
        
       | steveBK123 wrote:
       | greatest train station in the world
        
       | donkers wrote:
       | I'm not able to rotate or manipulate the view except to zoom in
       | and out on Chrome on a Mac, but I can rotate and do all kinds of
       | fun stuff with this page with Safari on my iPhone. Am I just
       | missing the keyboard commands to get this to work properly on a
       | desktop?
        
         | psygn89 wrote:
         | I have a normal mice on my Mac and scroll wheel = zoom, right-
         | click drag = rotate, left-click drag = pan
        
         | zeusk wrote:
         | they use mouse2 (right click) for rotation
        
           | donkers wrote:
           | Ahh, thanks! Somehow didn't think to try that instead of just
           | clicking and dragging.
        
         | aragonite wrote:
         | Does shift+drag not work for rotating in your browser?
        
       | pkdpic wrote:
       | Reminds me of the beginning of ghost in the shell in all the
       | right ways.
        
       | GolDDranks wrote:
       | Too bad it doesn't seem to include the railroad tracks and the
       | staircases/escalators to the platforms, which are the most
       | prominent features to people who use the station as passengers.
       | 
       | I was able to make sense of the parts by looking at the
       | surrounding road network, but without these, it's hard to make
       | sense of.
        
       | modeless wrote:
       | Relatedly, I just started playing this game where the concept is
       | you're lost in the corridors of a Japanese subway station looking
       | for Exit 8. Very authentic feel.
       | 
       | https://store.steampowered.com/app/2653790/The_Exit_8/
        
         | chupapimunyenyo wrote:
         | I love the concept of this game, very well thought and engaging
        
       | jakeinspace wrote:
       | I stayed at a capsule hotel just a block away from the station
       | this summer, that was quite the experience. I was there for not
       | even 3 full weeks but I think I'll feel nostalgic for Japan for
       | the rest of my life, a strange and stunning country.
        
         | jonplackett wrote:
         | Went in 2014 for just a week. Still feel nostalgic.
         | 
         | And still miss burnt miso ramen. Nowhere else in the world
         | seems to do it.
        
       | elymar wrote:
       | Beautiful map!
        
       | josteink wrote:
       | I can believe this is an accurate 3D map, because I'm looking
       | around, and just as I was in the real thing, I'm totally lost and
       | confused again.
       | 
       | This place has to be my nemesis when it comes to public transport
       | :D
        
       | _the_inflator wrote:
       | Some sort of a Digital Twin, fascinating. Nice model to play
       | around with.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-12-27 23:00 UTC)