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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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
174. Speaking of accordances, I liked how this ticket-buying UI simply enlarged the most common buttons.pic.twitter.com/WtPI735KI7
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
176. It was also interesting to see where they terminate. This one leads to more info delivered in Braille.pic.twitter.com/p8VlfpmTnf
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
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
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
177. That the train seat numbers are in Braille also will be of surprise to no one at this point.pic.twitter.com/hxl7p9pW7L
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
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
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
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
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
(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
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
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
185. Why would you worry about addresses when you could just play with this fun telescoping, bendy straw!pic.twitter.com/UBjYl7jbE8
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
187. More tech survivors: I was surprisingly thrilled to be in a car that had a MiniDisc player! (Also, it was fun to spot one button with kanji amidst icons and all the Latin.)pic.twitter.com/2imxJcmRbZ
The last one was in this tiny underground store whose branding and 18+ label got me worried!pic.twitter.com/HmUImt9N1W
But it was just a retro computing and gaming store with a slice of parallel home computing history I really wish I knew better.pic.twitter.com/NM976DXB4R
(I had this feeling too many times: “I wish I could read this book!”)pic.twitter.com/GfjG6RTdd1
189. If trash is not subdivided even further (see the android trash cans before), it’s typically split between “combustibles” (red) and “incombustibles” (blue). (Good thing they didn’t go with “flammable” and “inflammable,” I guess? Har har.)pic.twitter.com/Ml0kRvceGb
190. The same colour scheme is often used for restrooms, but there is no relation. By the way, restrooms are everywhere! Malls, tiny convenience stores, minuscule train stations. EVERYWHERE. They are free and clean. It’s REALLY glorious.pic.twitter.com/HpcHyKnN1E
191. All the maps seem to always be facing your orientation, instead of up = north.pic.twitter.com/q5n8iEcSlB
I even found this amazing map of auditorium seats, also presented from your perspective.pic.twitter.com/Ji0G7wX9JS
192. Japan seems to have a secondary official calendar where the years are counted in eras matching the reigning emperor. Here, 1964 was the 39th year of the Shōwa era, 1993 the 5th year of the (still current) Heisei era. More: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_era_name …pic.twitter.com/t5Ft6aQhG9
In one mall I actually stumbled onto a little mirror corner called “vanitory.” I laughed it off as an example of amazing flawed translation – but it turns out this is an actual English word. It’s funny that I didn’t expect that trip to teach me English, and yet it did.pic.twitter.com/L4JvgtWROI
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