Nishi-Nippori Tokyo Metro Station

The Nishi-Nippori Station in north Tokyo city is a simple station on the dark green Chiyoda line. It's a basic station with two platforms and connections to the JR East line and the Toei Nippori-Toneri liner. The two platforms are located vertically, so to get from one platform to the other you need to use the stairs, lift or escalator.

The station has a dual set of shops called Metro's on platforms 1 and 2 selling newspapers, sweets, drinks and cigarettes. This makes for a useful stop on the way to your next destination and if you feel like a morning coffee or the newspaper you can duck out of the train to buy them and then hop back on to the next one without going through the ticket gate. Other than Metro's there are only vending machines to keep you supplied in this station, although there's plenty of shopping outside the station.

The station has two main floors and a mezzanine. The mezzanine is mainly a gate for exit 1 and is home to the station attendant. This is where to go if you are in trouble or want a conversation about the Tokyo Metro system as the attendant has decent English skills. The access to this is via the stairs going up from platform 1, or from the street it's directly under the JR station in the road underpass at Tokyo Metro Nishi-Nippori entrance 1.

The first main floor has platform 1 and this goes southwards to Yoyogi-Uehara station. This floor has a full set of toilets, free Wi-Fi coverage, vending machines, and ticket machines. This floor also directly leads to exits 2 and 3, a lift to the street and a transfer gate on to the JR line. There's also a public phone outside the gate on the way to exits 2 and 3, and outside the gate on the way to the JR line.

The second floor is the lowest and services platform 2. The subway leads north-west towards Kita-Ayase. The floor has less available amenities and services to offer but there are still vending machines and toilets (although they don't service the needs of babies and the disabled) as well as more free Wi-Fi coverage. For the disabled the only way to leave is to take the lift up to the first floor.

The Nishi-Nippori station is C16 on the Chiyoda Line (dark green) which starts in the south-west of Tokyo city at Yoyogi-Uehara station (C01) and finishes in the north-east at Kita-Ayase station (C20). Along the way it stops at notable stations including Meiji-Jingumae, Otemachi and Shin-Ochanomizu. The standard amount of runs an hour varies from 5 to 28 depending on the time of day.