Ah, if all transport systems could be just as simple as the single line in Naha (beautiful place, by the way)!
Take the Ooedo line in Tokyo for example: it goes in some kind of an open loop from Tocho-mae to Tocho-mae and from there ends its route at Hikarigaoka. As for any "standard" line, MetrO gives the direction to take as "Tocho-mae" or "Hikarigaoka" (the end stops).
But this was too easy: the fact is that the directions displayed on the platforms are not always one of the the end stops, but are instead the closest of one of a few major stations along the line. This means that near the end of the "loop", the direction is Tocho-mae, but in the direction opposite to Tocho-mae (the one at the end of the line)!
You're lost at these explanations? So was I, until G. Montgomery took the pain to explain in long details. Now I understand the problem and I can see that the program "apparently" gives wrong directions. I'm still looking for a way to solve this problem but, in the meantime, be careful when MetrO tells you to "Take the Ooedo line, direction Tocho-mae": it just means the end of the line and not necessarily what you can see on the signs.
To be continued...
Yeah, that line is a weird one. It's basically a big numeral "6", with Tocho-mae being where it meets itself. Tocho-mae has four platforms--two around the tracs at the end of the line and two around those in the middle. Just a thought: what if Metro listed something such as "Tocho-mae, platforms 1/2" and Tocho-mae, platforms 3/4" as separate stops, with a walk between them? (I'm not completely sure if the numbers are paired like that, but I can easily check.) Passengers do indeed have to walk either across or up-over-down to another platform if they're not continuing on to the next stop on the line in the same direction.
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