(I have so many more things to share, but as you can imagine, this has been EXHAUSTING. I am now going to Hiroshima – a place that means a lot to me – and I need to be more in my head there.
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117. …but not before we take a look at the best logo ever made, for a delivery company called Yamato Transport.pic.twitter.com/fX9qpF80Bt
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118. …and this cute weather indicator in a little town. (Google Translate tells me the last option says, and I quote, “it will be bad.”)pic.twitter.com/bRRJNwz3hr
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119. Not unique to Japan, but uniquely consistent: this arrow means “this thing is behind you.” By definition, it can only be shown facing you; particularly inspired is the last use, before you climb the wrong set of stairs.pic.twitter.com/tVuxER2EYL
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120. Likewise, since you’re looking down before entering an escalator, we can give you a little bit of a useful info then.pic.twitter.com/A3WXys1vLi
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…and that brings us back to 116. Asymmetric gates tell you this is where the arriving car begins or ends, I assume so that you can make better boarding decisions? This sort of blew my mind.pic.twitter.com/xfcoIpjXPm
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121. Handles on the subway and buses are abundant, and they even include transverse handles, which I am not sure I have seen before.pic.twitter.com/t683jRwde8
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(At the railway museum in Kyoto, they were so proud of those they showed not just their evolution, but even prototypes!)pic.twitter.com/CK1p07XQuK
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122. This train crossing doesn’t just have a nice-sounding signal, but it also shows you which way the train is coming from!pic.twitter.com/IZEOrCVyG8
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123. Cute animals – giraffes, monkeys, frogs – as construction barriers. (I listed them all for future search purposes, not because I don’t trust you to name them!)pic.twitter.com/BDQcfKUCWe
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124. Another fascinating hybrid purchasing method, in a convenience store. You grab things, and walk up to the cashier as expected – but all the money-related bits you do with the cash register that has more UI for you than it does for the cashier.pic.twitter.com/loZzyZpcMt
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125. One thing you learn the hard way as a designer: it’s easier to add than it is to remove. ^_^pic.twitter.com/uoKzYYFjGo
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126. I liked that on the train I took, the signs above the doors reflected the direction of travel. (They also alternated between languages, in case you were wondering.)pic.twitter.com/PDqlRxZqop
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127. In order to get the degree sign, the designer of this took a regular 7-segment display and… put it in upside down. I loved this. Whoever made it and the Medium underline guy should hang out! They live in the same kind of universe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segment_display …pic.twitter.com/s0BOrAIHeD
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128. Speaking of upside down, a cool train schedule book rotating gizmo at the station.pic.twitter.com/3wyZ8bdSHL
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129. Not only is the drink label perforated so it’s easier to remove and recycle, but the perforation is stronger at the ends to help you out!pic.twitter.com/t06mFbkXz1
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130. This is also a fascinating hybrid opening cap. (And foot road signage photobombing it.)pic.twitter.com/8e3mAJvp0g
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132. Can/bottle recycling trash cans that kind of look like cute robots, but they’re scheming against you for sure.pic.twitter.com/7omAHEEu2Z
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133. (Quite possibly with the parking indicators, at least those that chose to be evil instead of good.)pic.twitter.com/IFueqIOVwa
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134. One of my hotels (but only one) offered me a Smoke Guard and that made me worried more than anything else.pic.twitter.com/ofWym4wJx3
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135. It wasn’t long after I got enough courage to try Oscillate when another restroom moved me up to face the next level’s final boss: Pulsate.pic.twitter.com/pYSrnuVIk8
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136. But the one thing I *really* did not expect to find next to a toilet was… volume controls.pic.twitter.com/Pk3Ug8BoDp
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137. Vending machines are truly ubiquitous, at 5½ million total (for 127M people). When I was biking through some rural areas near Hiroshima, I was astonished not just that they were there – but that I saw one every few minutes.pic.twitter.com/75FCTW6L6T
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(But contrary to all the lore, outside of some cigarette machines, pretty much all that I saw were machines with liquids: cold and hot drinks. No vending machines with candy or weird stuff, unless they’re hiding somewhere I’m not looking?)pic.twitter.com/NoYJW07tQT
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138. Getting the machine to give you back (the rest of) your money is such a fun great interaction on some of the models. First of all, there’s a big yellow lever to pull…pic.twitter.com/aU0hDlp4PP
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Then, the machine counts down the money it owes you one coin at a time, which is REALLY satisfying. (Here, I put in 1,000¥ and ordered something worth 130¥.)pic.twitter.com/lfrV3IRVGr
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Lastly, your change gets spat out at the very bottom, close to the ground, next to the delivered item. (Although I can’t decide whether that’s good. On one hand, it’s easy to grab with whatever you ordered – but also sometimes I forgot, and I had to reach further down again.)
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139. This vending machine had a bottle opener and a little bucket for caps. It also had… mystery items! I saw that in other machines in that town, too. The last photo is what I got, because of course I had to try it out.pic.twitter.com/kgNl45vaRj
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140. An incomplete list of surprising things I ordered that also tasted surprisingly well: – hot green tea – hot milk tea – hot corn souppic.twitter.com/QlDwB4CDvO
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141. This is something that made me really happy yesterday. I love Stanisław Lem’s books enough that I sometimes have a dream where I go to a bookstore and find a stash of his books that I somehow never knew of.
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