191. All the maps seem to always be facing your orientation, instead of up = north.pic.twitter.com/q5n8iEcSlB
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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
197. If the place is not using a ticketing system or you don’t order at the country, often they’d bring my bill to me immediately, and then I went to the register to pay on the way out.pic.twitter.com/ZGDuwkt9G9
198. In love with cute little shopping baskets to be filled with cute little things.pic.twitter.com/1LHTKtwhFq
199. It was interesting that when listing emergency numbers, marine accidents and incidents were as high priority as ambulance, fire, and police. (From a phone booth. There are phone booths!)pic.twitter.com/iL9l9QANrm
200. There are tons of little delightful melodies. I made a compilation video of a few on the subway and other trains – particularly there, a particular melody can identify a train or a station as you’re traveling. (More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_melody …)pic.twitter.com/0mQ0bgfW6s
(Even the washer/dryer in my hotel played a little melody when it started and when it ended its job. It was such a surprise I wasn’t prepared to record it.)
201. I liked how the owners of the said washer/dryer taped over irrelevant pieces of UI (buttons, drawers), and labeled the remaining buttons A, B, and C just to help me out.pic.twitter.com/0OiaIs3GqG
202. I saw more things like this. Here, the railway clock explains how to embrace the 24-hour time (and NEVER LOOK BACK).pic.twitter.com/PNENEUQmxo
Various establishments announced their support for English.pic.twitter.com/qVpcoFAWyY
This one made me laugh. I almost imagined the exasperation of the people putting it together, trying all sorts of approaches, only eventually to arrive at “very slippery.”pic.twitter.com/LkYQmBLmN5
203. Because otherwise everything’s so gentle and respectful! Instead of “No tampering,” it’s “Is you open this cover, you will be inquired by crew,” for example.pic.twitter.com/Uv8rvmwxpz
It’s actually kind of amazing how many things become humanized here. From cigarettes and lightbulbs…pic.twitter.com/I0NCux9rw3
…through houses and cars on top of BRIDGES. (I wonder what HR has to say about *that* relationship.)pic.twitter.com/cKwvhyCC5W
205. What surprised me quite a bit is that I haven’t noticed any emoji. I sort of have this impression that emoji exist in print and ads in America. Maybe I’m mis-remembering? Because I don’t think I saw any used in that context here in Japan.
206. I have seen this, a lot –
– a symbol for hot springs.
(By the way! I have done many since my first day: open air hot bath under the winter’s sky, and public town hot bath, and I’m now so good at it that I notice other foreigners’ etiquette mistakes. :·) )pic.twitter.com/9ySn0Sq7wr
207. Although it is still impossible for me not to see this as a shrug emoticon face.pic.twitter.com/1WI57cBbdW
Although at some point I came up with my first Japanese typographical joke! Here it is: ¯\_(つ)_/¯ (I’m not saying it’s *good*, but it has to count for something!)
208. This kaomoji rubber mat was pretty cute.
As far as I understand:
Emoji:
Emoticon: :·/
Kaomoji: ಠ_ʖಠpic.twitter.com/bR7LZNhBvM
209. There’s a lot more smoking here. Smoking alcoves, smoking sections at the restaurants and on trains. (I once tried to sit in one as an experiment… I lasted a whole 3 minutes.)pic.twitter.com/Q7FiZtFdAF
210. But people wearing face masks – and a lot of people do, including cops in cars and postal office clerks in their windows – apparently has nothing to do with smoking.
As someone explained to me, it’s a) not wanting to make other people sick, b) not wanting to get sick yourself, c) some sort of worry about pollens from China!?
211. There is a lot of free wi-fi around: on many subway stations, in restaurants, in shopping malls. It’s also always pretty fast. Some wi-fi comes with fun signs.pic.twitter.com/KCNoYnBOdY
There were always (legally-mandated?) interstitials, and some of the UI and security choices were… interesting. Or, to me, incomprehensible.pic.twitter.com/4wtRTWXHr6
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