Decorative Pipes at Iidabashi Station

 

(The stairway down to the Oedo Line at Iidabashi Station.)

After Shinjuku and Tokyo Station, Iidabashi is third on my list of Most Frustrating Stations in Tokyo. All three of them are labyrinthine constructions, with subway lines and train lines all converging in one large area. Going through these stations, you feel like a rat fighting through a maze -- especially with all the shops (read: distractions) that line the pathways.

While Iidabashi is significantly smaller than the first two stations, a simple matter of changing train lines can still lead to a half-a-kilometer walk. Use any of these stations as a meeting spot, and there will invariably be someone who hadn't anticipated it would take so long to find the right exit, and someone who gets lost and requires meticulous guiding over the phone.

 

Getting to the Oedo Line from west exit of Iidabashi Station is a bit of a trek, but it's a more pleasant experience than other stations, if only because the pathway is clean and relatively new-looking. When you go down the escalator/stairs to the platform, there's a gaggle of green pipes overhead that initially look functional but turn out to be purely decorative.

Bonus: the outside of the station is as batshit crazy as the inside.