43. My phone and my battery died in the middle of exploring which was unnerving, given I once managed to get lost after literally having seen my destination in front of me. (And I saw a bunch of things on the way I couldn’t take photos of. :·( )
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52. I heard a loop of birds chirping in various places in a big subway station. (Sorry for the shoddy video.) It didn’t add up then, but I read now it’s a guide for vision-impaired people, telling them about the beginnings of escalators leading towards the exits.pic.twitter.com/rzQiw74zQO
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(It feels thoughtful, repurposing pleasant nature sounds – particularly in an urban setting – rather than perpetuating the harsh beeps and bleeps associated with technology.)
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54. I did it! I went to the hotel bath and sat naked in public for the first time in my life. I wore my Crater Lake slippers on the way for good luck! But also memorized the etiquette three times over: http://www.sentoguide.info/etiquette pic.twitter.com/iqlHGkuAy1
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55. Mac OS is better at recognizing my awful kanji than the app I used before. Here’s “big bathhouse,” the first try:pic.twitter.com/S7XB4GKh6w
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56. Genuinely amazing: part of my hotel bathroom mirror is covered in some sort of a substance that doesn’t allow it to fog up. (My initial reaction was probably the same as ancient people seeing an eclipse. The smudge on the right is me trying to understand the phenomenon.)pic.twitter.com/bgbKJPthHX
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57. A colour-coded orange section on the subway car with priority seats (the elderly, injured, parents with kids and pregnant women), but also a quiet zone?pic.twitter.com/TnAoTgUeSg
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58. A lot of cabs are older cars, with mirrors mounted all the way in the front.pic.twitter.com/H7geDXh3JO
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59. A handle to help you sit down and get up, plus a little notch for your… cane, I think?pic.twitter.com/DkEgVUXHo7
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61. A split-flap date clock in an older subway station!!! Google Translate says both buttons (which I assume are for manual advancing) say “push,” but they look slightly different?pic.twitter.com/0pwpmatlLk
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(By the way, I really enjoy all of you jumping in with context, stories, corrections, and so on. This is very informative and I appreciate it!)
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62. In addition to 2+ writing systems, each subway station in Tokyo also has a letter+number identifier, e.g. E09. Also, I liked the convention “grayed out text = stations already visited.” It helped me once I got it. Does it mean each line is always shown in the same order?pic.twitter.com/tpUchRfwb8
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63. I didn’t know I had so many feelings for vending machines until I started seeing dozens of them outside, exposed to elements. (Which explains the money cover above.) Also, vending machines don’t seem to be gross here! Which is becoming kind of an overall theme.pic.twitter.com/iVDps94mxs
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64. Speaking of vending machines, this Tommy Lee Jones encounter was very Lost In Translation.pic.twitter.com/Vd8sPdIRqN
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(Something tells me you can unpack a lot about Japanese culture from the name Pride Of Boss alone.)
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65. …aaaaand this just happened. That’s a wrap, everyone! I don’t think I am ready for anything more.pic.twitter.com/iAo8ygga5R
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66. After a few readers told me red labels mean “hot” and blue “cold,” I had my first hot coffee in a can, from a vending machine. It was good! Plus, it arrived within a second of pressing the button.pic.twitter.com/rjkxbrPydM
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67. One-bit train arrival indicator. (Unless it’s zero-bit, always lit up to brag how often trains run here.)pic.twitter.com/tU8FIqtrPi
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68. The circle of life is universal, I suppose? (I read this top to bottom: Friends abandon you when you have a kid, your kids grow up, eventually you die and they take over.)pic.twitter.com/9IGNZJVV5Q
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69. This ATM has a hook where you can hang your groceries or bags for the duration of the interaction. Nice.pic.twitter.com/7qCCIkQmYc
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70. On a whim I followed the arrow to see the line of gingko trees. The line of gingko trees held a surprise.pic.twitter.com/pg4ogsZOeP
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71. Akihabara, or Electric Town, a Tokyo area filled with electronic and special interest stores. It’s a bunch of city blocks that look like this. I don’t think I know how to explain how much of an assault on senses this was.pic.twitter.com/pBSd2xGwur
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72. The huge stores (many with names having “Camera” in them?) are multi-floor shrines to personal electronics, with unprecedented to me density. If I was a kid, I think I would just live here. This would be my Terminal.pic.twitter.com/QG5CzeHzNy
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73. And there’s hundreds (?) more tiny stores, like this unassuming electronics one where I saw… * pause for dramatic effect * …SONY’S FIRST EVER WALKMAN!pic.twitter.com/hGCRULR2Cj
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74. My brain is still recovering, so I’ll leave you with this video of trains going in and out of the station. I watched them to relax, although there was rarely a time where there was no moving train in sight.pic.twitter.com/In8T4xF5Ie
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(Spoiler alert: I have enough material for this thread to be twice as long. Make yourself comfortable!)
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(Love how many people are like “don’t leave without buying X from a vending machine.” So now I have my life’s first vending machine to-do list.)pic.twitter.com/Y1bDLEVU96
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75. Speaking of recommendations, this matter-of-fact one from a grocery store made me smile. “Best.”pic.twitter.com/wiZNrAYA06
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(Despite best efforts of new hotel translators and three different iPhone apps, my room momentarily became sauna. But I actually really, really like trying to figure the Japanese language out on my own!)pic.twitter.com/xiLEoVz96l
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