This Train Station Known As A Gateway To Tokyo Is The Busiest In The World

It should come as no surprise that a sprawling megacity like Tokyo, which holds the Guinness World Record for "highest population urban agglomeration," should also hold the record for "busiest railway station." However, it's not Tokyo Station — the recognizable, red-brick emblem of the capital — that's the busiest, despite how many commuter trains and bullet trains it funnels through the city's central ward, Chuo-ku. Head to Shinjuku Station in Western Tokyo, and you'll find an even more bustling transportation hub, one that dwarfs any other train station on earth in daily passenger numbers.

Per Guinness, Shinjuku Station fielded an average of 2.7 million passengers per day in 2022, far more than the world's next busiest station, the Gare du Nord in Paris (which only gets up to about 600,000). The pre-pandemic number for Shinjuku Station in 2018 was even higher: 3.5 million, which is almost as big as the population of Yokohama, a neighboring city just as fabulous as Tokyo. A big reason why Shinjuku Station gets flooded with so many passengers is that it acts as a gateway to the city for the scores of commuters who live in Tokyo's western suburbs and adjacent prefectures.

I'm one of those commuters. For over a decade, I've been taking the Keio Line into Shinjuku Station, but it never fails to amaze me how packed it can get on the platforms and in the tunnels and concourses. I still occasionally get turned around and lose track of where I am, and that's something that may happen to you, too, especially if it's your first time in Shinjuku Station.

The Keio Line is one of a dozen train lines that operate out of Shinjuku Station, including the JR Yamanote Line, the best way to get around Tokyo if you're sticking to its central metropolitan loop. These lines are owned by five different train companies, with the subway lines being split across the Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway systems. The fifth company is Odakyu, and each company has its own separate set of transfer and ticket gates, leading to over 200 exits. As a result, Shinjuku Station's layout can be confusing and maze-like, as if it were a decentralized version of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

When I lived in New York, I got used to passing through Grand Central's main concourse, a wide-open space with a ceiling that stretches so high you can see the constellations on it (painted, of course). Expect nothing of the sort in Shinjuku Station, where there's no main concourse, and the ceiling is low and claustrophobic in places. It's more like a multi-level honeycomb of passageways connected to department stores in adjoining buildings, such as Lumine.

The JR lines, for example, have a basement level with escalators and stairs leading up to first-floor platforms and second-floor street exits. Getting from one side of the station to the other isn't as simple as just cutting through the middle (since there is no discernible middle to speak of, anyway). The South Exit and New South Exit also span two different sides of Koshu-Kaido Avenue. You could easily come up from underground and find yourself on the wrong side of the street.

As disorienting as Shinjuku Station can be, it's less complicated once you get your bearings on the three general directions where its exits send you. On the station's east side, you'll find the neon-lit entertainment district, Kabukicho. It's home to Samurai Restaurant (a dinner-theater successor to the famous Robot Restaurant) and Toho Cinemas Shinjuku, a multiplex and real-life Godzilla landmark topped with the monster's life-size head.

Shinjuku Station's south side lets out near Takashimiya Times Square, a massive shopping center with 14 floors and a seven-story annex. If you need some reading material for the bullet train, Books Kinokuniya Tokyo has the city's top selection of English books. From Takashimiya Times Square's rooftop garden, you can see the Nishi-Shinjuku skyscraper district and Shinjuku Gyoen, a popular park for viewing autumn leaves and springtime cherry blossoms. They're both within walking distance, as is Konjiki-Hototogisu, a ramen shop that's helped make Tokyo the city with the most Michelin-starred restaurants in the world.

Accessible from both the east and west side of Shinjuku Station is Omoide Yokocho ("Memory Lane"), a narrow drinking alley that developed out of the post-war black market. The station's west side leads to Nishi-Shinjuku, where high-rises like the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building are located. Its twin towers hold two free observatories where you can see a view of the city from 45 stories up. Right around the corner from there is the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel, where the Oscar-winning movie "Lost in Translation" was filmed. As of this writing, it's under renovation, but it's set to reopen for its 30th anniversary in October 2025.