232. Someone told me “Have you tried the genius that is onigiri packaging? The nori seaweed isn’t touching the rice, but 1-2-3 you pull away the wrapper and then it is! Fascinating.” I tested it out and indeed! Alchemy.pic.twitter.com/PP9Ihs1GvF
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243. I also discovered the most futuristic ATM: one where you just drop your card in a chamber (of course it is highlighted, too!) and what I assume is magic does the connection.pic.twitter.com/fTKOOXcimh
244. I mentioned before how the coins have indicators (hole/no hole, rough/smooth edge, big/small size) that allow people to distinguish them just by touch. At some point, I wondered why my transit card has a notch. It’s so that you can tell it apart from others with fingers!pic.twitter.com/stil28nC2h
245. There were also a bunch of ATMs with extra calculators to help you with math? (Which, funnily enough, reminded me of the original Mac desk accessories.)pic.twitter.com/2Tinela0jM
246. A peculiar choice: showing you how to use a touch screen by employing… a mouse pointer.pic.twitter.com/Dhoqn18nCh
247. This is kind of wonderful; I’ve never seen anything like this cautioned against – or even acknowledged – before.pic.twitter.com/LwBEVL4e7O
248. At busy subway stations in rush hour, there are even more signs (and people) helping to deal with the traffic flow.pic.twitter.com/dkP3yLolol
249. A cool platform edge signage showing you the train is about to arrive – and from which direction.pic.twitter.com/J6jm9jaoyr
250. Just like you could slide in a stack of money into a ticket machine, you could also insert more than one ticket together to get through this fare gate.pic.twitter.com/tTyBSkKdww
251. On any type of train, there has always been a manned gate and a wide gate for wheelchairs. But even any regular gate was wide enough for me and my big bag – and I was never nervous crossing it.pic.twitter.com/wdLCL90yWk
252. Japan seems to care A LOT about trains in general. These are a few really cool-looking local trains I saw in actual operation.pic.twitter.com/VXi1YusBxA
253. Not that a train has to be good-looking. It was so rewarding to see a little reliable commuter train just weaving its way through the city, like it’s no big deal.pic.twitter.com/aP2HLMwPEH
254. Speaking of which, can someone help me and decipher what was this train crossing trying to tell me? (Both Google Translate and me drawing these shapes failed.)pic.twitter.com/nJKoAzybUX
255. A lot of the trains utilize this fascinating system: there are cars with reserved seats, and cars where you can sit at will. This feels like such a great hybrid model accommodating both planners and spontaneous people. (I wish movie theatres did that!)
256. Even a train ticket machine will allow you to reserve a seat. Here, the UI actually tells you which car is the least occupied at any given moment, which is super thoughtful.pic.twitter.com/iXterBU0nw
257. As a consequence, there is a lot of signage directing you to the appropriate car.pic.twitter.com/5w9qQuufbR
Each train has its own map, and in front of you, there is often even a mini version of that map.pic.twitter.com/YHTMHcMYSD
And for trains without reserved seats, there are still interesting systems. Here, each door position was labeled with a symbol, and my train was announced as “queue up anywhere you see a triangle.” So much better than an enigmatic “board center.” *cough*BART*cough*pic.twitter.com/aKuA4RBauN
258. By the way, it was cool to queue up for a train called Thunderbird. (Other fav name: Eveningliner.)pic.twitter.com/jnmiOalZLF
259. I liked this consistent visual language for priority seats on one of commuter lines.pic.twitter.com/nosrYBeGL0
260. This cool little UI shows you how far your train is from the current station in a way that reminded me of old videogames.pic.twitter.com/AFNY82YL49
261. This perplexed me. A map on a train with two sliding transparent sections. Do they serve a purpose? Do they prevent people from touching the map itself and damaging it?pic.twitter.com/7BhsYx148H
262. The best/fastest trains are the famous Shinkansen, or bullet trains. I have to say, seeing giant Shinkansen signage leading to my first trip was THRILLING.pic.twitter.com/jrB3OeFF5O
263. Here are a few that I went on. (The first photos have someone on the platform who takes care of controlling the train? They always had a red umbrella-like thing of undetermined purpose.)pic.twitter.com/B8F3vFqH9I
264. Someone compared Shinkansen to “wingless airplanes,” but I swear the Shinkansen I rode on had wings.pic.twitter.com/u7HscoccZO
265. The trains run so often, and so precisely, that I had an 8-minute layover on the same platform, and in that small period of time there was ANOTHER Shinkansen passing through. …which I learned about the hard way (by boarding the wrong train).
I was also once on a Shinkansen crossing a river, seeing another Shinkansen crossing the same river on another bridge, and – in between the two of us – yet another bridge being ready for yet another train. That was incredible.
266. Small surface details: A little arm rest tray by the window, plus the actual big tray has a raised edge so that things can’t escape easily.pic.twitter.com/R8ZeUsFU3Z
267. This design for a cup holder was clever – it extended only when needed, and also it locked in place, so it was pretty stable.pic.twitter.com/hO1ulJHwQR
268. I also saw this cute set of retractable hooks, for both the aisle seat and the window seat, I assume?pic.twitter.com/eF0TEXlioj
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