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.
I might have suggested meeting at the "farm" above the South side of the station. I think it's on the fourth or fifth floor. Of course, theres only one farm in the vicinity and it's small enough that you won't miss each other.
Thanks! We found each other without any problem. My friend was a bit miffed that I seemed to think that he would get lost. Otherwise we had a pleasant lunch.
Later, I walked through Shinjuku and Kabukicho up to Shin Okubo to see how the city had changed. It was good to see that the Shin Okubo area is still as multiethnic and ungentrified as it was twenty years ago. A couple of backstreet one-person coffee shops I used to frequent were still there, though closed for the New Year's holiday.
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.