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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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
And it definitely made me reflect on English the way seeing foreigners use a language tends to. Of course “height” is going to be misspelled since it’s so inconsistent with “width” and other words! Of course “here is not parking” seems like it’d make perfect sense!pic.twitter.com/psMZwtQtSu
194. Here are some of my favourite translation, and also that pictogram in the last photo is beyond priceless.pic.twitter.com/tXfrBb9Tmy
195. I gave Google Translate hard time before, and indeed, things can be rough. (Although I like the idea of a “very button”!)pic.twitter.com/IMdkleEXMT
Google Translate told me about “Moses following children” in a restaurant menu, “The Russians” on an air conditioning panel, and “the peregrine falcon per cent” in a post office.
Some appear and quickly disappear as I slightly shift my position, including this hilariously inappropriate translation of an ATM label.pic.twitter.com/Fd7v9TjVG5
But there are many genuinely amazing moments where I can at least get the *gist*. Walking through the otherwise completely incomprehensible bookstore with it was like having a lens with superpower, like glasses that made *information* naked. (If you know what I mean.)pic.twitter.com/Vb37vbPWeT
Today in a restaurant, the waitress tried to ask me something, and I had no idea. She tried so hard, brought a piece of paper with tons of Japanese, nothing. And then I had the idea to point Translate at it. Turns out and was asking me about my allergies.
A few times I showed others Google Translate they were really impressed; perhaps the only time *I* appeared cool and advanced during this trip. (Otherwise I mostly feel like the attached surreal vignette I witnessed today.)pic.twitter.com/4fdAc1BgUJ
196. Speaking of restaurants, I love little moist hand towels that are always there waiting for you – and also added to your bag whenever you buy food from grocery stores or bakeries. So refined!pic.twitter.com/pTVIpBGdcG
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