(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.)
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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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219. I saw a bunch of interesting bike parking with similar UI and operations as those automated lockers. (And also, some lovely translation.)pic.twitter.com/Z1foXSfg5L
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221. I also rented a bike. It was my first time biking on the left; taking right turns through intersections was even more frightening than biking on huge, scary bridges. (Bonus points if you notice a fun typographical detail in that last photo.)pic.twitter.com/gUXtNbDDM4
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222. My bike lock had a thoughtful detail: it came with a little token with the lock combination so I didn’t have to memorize it or write it down.pic.twitter.com/5CzZWYOtJv
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(But, my confidence took a big boost – and I was reminded of all the jokes made of me in primary school – when even the biggest helmet was too small for my enormous head. Also, a random thing I learned: Fixies without brakes are illegal in Japan.)
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223. I supported this towel warmer after half an hour of walking in below-freezing temperatures… despite its dubious typographical allegiances.pic.twitter.com/Jr5hIRXLxZ
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224. Although, to be fair, I also encountered some breathtakingly beautiful typography.pic.twitter.com/zK6NKTnvnK
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225. Also, this split-flap parking display foreshadowing something amazing to happen in a few days hence! (Although, I feel bad for split-flap displays that don’t change often.)pic.twitter.com/uREMukAkng
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*Vin Diesel voice* The thing about media fights… paper always wins.pic.twitter.com/4OV82WHcQ6
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