158. Only yesterday, I discovered that as you approach a taxi, the driver can remotely open your door for you, and then do the same as you arrive. There are also many more automatic sliding doors around, even in little stores. Opening a “normal” door seems like a rarity.
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165. Here are some beautiful station indicators from a local commuter line. Showing the terminus to the left/to the right of a given station can be achieved with a pretty narrow sign.pic.twitter.com/HXATT781RG
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166. It’s really fun to see when Japanese and English coexist, and Latin letters are forced to do things that makes them rather awkward. Look at “cars” here!pic.twitter.com/viGl4zpfzq
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(I’m not an expert, but diagonal Japanese feels much more natural than Latin would!)pic.twitter.com/SjRJWgNFW5
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(It’s actually really refreshing to see English as a second-level citizen for once! Here is an archive of a guestbook from a small museum. Japanese entries have been retyped, but English ones just copied and pasted.)pic.twitter.com/Eo6x0iACvv
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167. “Horizontal” Japanese can be beautiful, also. Here’s a small collection of barriers with text.pic.twitter.com/fFBESohpjZ
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168. Just as I wasn’t really sure what those said, I am not sure how I’m supposed to feel after seeing this.pic.twitter.com/E6Ak5MVT69
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169. Seeing elevator buttons described in three different ways – none of them being English – just made me so happy.pic.twitter.com/XOYyol7GIO
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(Although in another instance, I was confused why two different Japanese writing systems were used at the same time?)pic.twitter.com/P7YEodoA8I
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170. This ATM has a little tactical dynamic Braille display to – as far as I understand – communicate numbers. It’s a really interesting ATM in a number of different ways…pic.twitter.com/R11xe2VwEj
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171. It has a table top form factor, which I’ve seen on a few other machines. (Old 1970s and 1980s arcade games called that form factor “cocktail,” I think because you could put down a drink on your Ms. Pac-Man game?)pic.twitter.com/rL2gxPeu3g
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172. The money arrives in a little pocket (which is lit green, because green light means “stuff gets in or out of here,” as we already saw).pic.twitter.com/m7lRL2IGq5
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173. Lastly, action keys have red lights. When a light is lit, it means the key is active (yellow key = backspace, green key = enter). It’s an interesting way to achieve what onscreen UIs often do by “graying out” unavailable buttons.pic.twitter.com/2uZaczNBSN
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174. Speaking of accordances, I liked how this ticket-buying UI simply enlarged the most common buttons.pic.twitter.com/WtPI735KI7
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175. I started paying more attention to the yellow lines, and interesting cases of those. For example, in less populated areas, they are not connected, but the straight line is implied?pic.twitter.com/B8qefqRt56
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176. It was also interesting to see where they terminate. This one leads to more info delivered in Braille.pic.twitter.com/p8VlfpmTnf
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This one leads to a dedicated assistive machine that can talk to you (green buttons), and also has a tactile map of the surroundings.pic.twitter.com/s3ka7QWMfX
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This outdoors one in Onomichi leads to a few tactile maps, including a way to feel the area’s beautiful bridges.pic.twitter.com/QNLIxCyiEY
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And on a very different scale, here’s a tactile map of a restroom on a train. I’ve seen many of those kinds of tactical maps.pic.twitter.com/V7ZRjnBR8v
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177. That the train seat numbers are in Braille also will be of surprise to no one at this point.pic.twitter.com/hxl7p9pW7L
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178. That the train seats have handles to hold onto since the train can sway a bit as you’re moving is also thoughtful.pic.twitter.com/K3hnYF1sey
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179. But what’s truly wonderful is that those handles are in many more places, helping people who can’t stand for long. Here’s an example of one set next to the elevator.pic.twitter.com/D2mu7r4lj8
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180. More hooks! A multi-purpose holder next to another ATM, plus an umbrella hook in a restroom. (I felt so uncomfortable taking that photo. In general, I feel I’m getting away with things, since my iPhone doesn’t have a forced shutter sound like Japanese phones do!)pic.twitter.com/SGNrLs6CJL
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181. And lockers! They are everywhere: train stations, museums, just chilling outside next to vending machines. Some are advanced – tap your card to lock and pay – and others much more simple. But they are all SO CONVENIENT. (Bonus: more humanoid trash cans.)pic.twitter.com/uynUoTil0c
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182. All modern elevators have another set of buttons for people in wheelchairs. (Which I’ve noticed are, funny thing about accessibility, much more useful to many others, too!)pic.twitter.com/mRRazr4lGY
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(Although I chuckled seeing that glued on protector in that last elevator. I also saw a more old-school way of solving the accidental button press problem elsewhere.)pic.twitter.com/aciu4FpKmG
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183. There are many tall buildings and there’s generally a pretty strong convention of referring to floors by 1F (ground floor), 2F, 3F and so on – the F provides enough context, which helps in advertising and so on. The floor below 1F is B1. No F.pic.twitter.com/xJAFMf5bYw
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184. But the addresses are a huge mystery. The system is like… a fractal? It feels unlike both the American grid and the more organic addresses I know from Europe. I basically use Google Maps here and rarely if ever know what street I’m on. Read more: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_addressing_system …pic.twitter.com/wuP9R6KEfu
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185. Why would you worry about addresses when you could just play with this fun telescoping, bendy straw!pic.twitter.com/UBjYl7jbE8
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186. Public phones with distinctive green colour and shape are much more pervasive than I’d expect. (I am not sure what the gray ISDN phone is about! But I didn’t see those that often anyway.)pic.twitter.com/m21fShzt5R
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