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.
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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
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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
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Various establishments announced their support for English.pic.twitter.com/qVpcoFAWyY
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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
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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
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It’s actually kind of amazing how many things become humanized here. From cigarettes and lightbulbs…pic.twitter.com/I0NCux9rw3
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…through houses and cars on top of BRIDGES. (I wonder what HR has to say about *that* relationship.)pic.twitter.com/cKwvhyCC5W
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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.
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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
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207. Although it is still impossible for me not to see this as a shrug emoticon face.pic.twitter.com/1WI57cBbdW
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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!)
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208. This kaomoji rubber mat was pretty cute. As far as I understand: Emoji:
Emoticon: :·/
Kaomoji: ಠ_ʖಠpic.twitter.com/bR7LZNhBvM
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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
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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.
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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!?
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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
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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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(It’s also always fun to see different variants of soft drinks and so on.)pic.twitter.com/UpFHLgxEbB
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213. During rain and snow, I saw tons of umbrellas and – despite what the second image might tell you – most of them were just what Blade Runner promised: transparent. (Third image: Me under my transparent umbrella I brought with me to the U.S.)pic.twitter.com/AEWS3sya54
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I also noticed a new type of umbrella hook… and a bunch of “don’t forget your umbrella” signs. (But despite them, there were quite a few forgotten umbrellas around. Always in an immaculate shape.)pic.twitter.com/d22U9IwGEj
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215. I posted a regular fire hydrant sign before. However, most of those were elevated higher – sometimes much higher – and had a distinctive shape.pic.twitter.com/LP291krgXR
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(This style was creatively reused by other things, chiefly bus stops.)pic.twitter.com/sZ4rCPBM6q
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216. On the bus (where you board in the back, and leave in the front and pay your fare then), stop buttons were positioned at different heights to accommodate more people.pic.twitter.com/1Rsd0cdoJM
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217. In many places I noticed this – a barrier separating people from cars, rather than a raised sidewalk.pic.twitter.com/Zu6XrgdRtY
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218. Some street crossings offer to talk to you in many different languages.pic.twitter.com/8NXeI7vofu
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