Hardly anyone uses the North Exit of Maihama Station, but we did.

Tokyo and the surrounding areas just outside the city limits have a well-deserved reputation for being among the most crowded places in Japan. However, right outside Maihama Station on the Keiyo Line, only about 15 minutes from Tokyo Station, we stumbled across a pocket of surprising solitude.

This isn’t because Maihama doesn’t get a lot of passenger traffic, either. On average, about 76,000 people a day pass through the station. Of those 76,000, though, more than 90 percent of them use the same exit, the South Exit.

Why? Because to the south of Maihama Station is where you’ll find the Tokyo Disney Resort, the collective name for Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Sea, Ikspiari shopping/dining/entertainment complex, and the various hotels catering to travelers making their visit to Japan’s most popular amusement park an overnight excursion.

The outflow of people from the station is so predominantly pointed south that Maihama’s other exit, the North Exit, is sometimes jokingly referred to as the “Wrong Exit,” since for so many people getting off the train here using the North Exit would be a mistake.

▼ Maihama’s South Exit has over a dozen ticket gates to accommodate the large number of people passing through…

▼ …while the North Exit has only three.

But the North Exit does exist, so there’s got to be something out there, right? With our contrary curiosity piqued, we decided to do some wrong exit exploring, and so we rode all the way to Tokyo Disney Resort’s front doorstep, then turned and went the opposite way as we left through the North Exit.

As you step out of the North Exit, you’re on an elevated pedestrian walkway. In contrast to the hustle and bustle of the South Exit, things are very quiet. There’s no taxi stand or even so much as a single bus stop. Instead, there’s a pretty big bicycle parking lot, but in the middle of the day we didn’t see anyone coming or going, implying that these are commuters’ bikes left here after they took the train to another station for work or school earlier in the day.

We kept walking straight on the elevated walkway, and soon came to a fork in the path, with a sign telling us to veer left for the Maihama District 2 and Higashino neighborhoods, or right for Maihama District 3 and Benten.

On a whim, we picked the left path.

▼ Bicyclists are supposed to get off and walk their bikes on the elevated walkway, which is why these divider pylons are in place.

This path takes you over the National Route 357 expressway, and once you’re on the other side there’s another choice to make, left for Maihama District 2, or right for Higashino and Fujimi.

This time we went to the right, and finally got down off the elevated pathway and onto the regular street sidewalk.

Maihama Station, and Tokyo Disney Resort, are technically on an island, separated from the mainland by a pair of rivers, and walking in this direction we came to one of them, the Miakegawa River, and the Bentenbashi Bridge that goes across it.

There’s a stairway for getting back down before crossing…

…and on the far side is a sloped walkway.

It was here that we ran into some of the only people we passed by, including a group of teens on their way home from sports practice, most likely at the nearby Tokai University Urayasu Junior & Senior High School.

We then decided to head back to the last fork in the road and try going left, to Maihama District 2.

Taking the slope down to the surface street, we ere greeted by some lovingly maintained sidewalk flower beds.

A short walk past that, we found ourselves in a nice, quiet, residential area…

…and also passed by the Urayasu Maihama branch of 7-Eleven.

▼ Remember this place. It’ll be important later.

Next, we retraced our steps all the way back to that first fork in the elevated walkway we mentioned, and this time we turned right, towards Maihama District 3 and Benten.

We were quickly presented with yet another choice, though, as the path split again, left for Benten, and right for Maihama District 3, and we chose to go right first.

Stepping down the surface, we came across a quaint, quiet park…

…and on the other side of the park is a residential neighborhood with neat rows of slightly upscale houses, much like the one we say in Maihama District 2.

Heading back to the point on the sidewalk before we crossed through the park, we kept walking down the road…

…which eventually took us to a backside parking and shipping entrance for Ikspiari…

…and beyond that, a residential area with newer, fancier homes.

▼ This is a really wide street by Japanese residential standards.

Past the residential area, we once again reached the Miakegawa River from earlier, but at a point closer to where the river meets Tokyo Bay.

Turning left and walking away from the bay, we spotted a staircase…

…and climbing it put us on a path to the Bentenbashi Bridge from earlier.

At this fork we headed left, toward the Benten neighborhood…

…where there was some soothing greenery and an uphill path that follows the Tokyo Bay Road.

By the way, remember how we said that 7-Eleven was going to be important? That’s because in all this walking, we didn’t pass by so much as a single restaurant. So if you’re exploring the area, you’ll want to grab any snacks you might be planning to eat in the field there.

▼ Urayasu Maihama 7-Eleven

With our feet now starting to get tired, but our heart calm, we headed back to Maitama Station. This was, by far, the quietest day we’d ever spent at Maihama. While we didn’t have the thrill of roller coasters or squealing fun of parades that Disneyland provides, it’s hard to beat a long, peaceful walk for de-stressing, and if you’re looking for a place to do that, the North Exit is, actually, the right exit, not the wrong one.

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