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
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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
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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
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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
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264. Someone compared Shinkansen to “wingless airplanes,” but I swear the Shinkansen I rode on had wings.pic.twitter.com/u7HscoccZO
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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).
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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.
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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
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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
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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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269. All the seats always face the direction of travel, although you can rotate your pair to sit family-style. (I’ve been told that when the train reverses at the terminal, all the seats are rotated automagically from the control panel, which would’ve been AMAZING to witness.)pic.twitter.com/nvyqqOtnou
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270. Among my proudest achievements was, during one brief train stop, running out to the platform vending machine LIKE A PRO to grab something quickly…pic.twitter.com/BeUnfbSZKE
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271. …an achievement relatively quickly undermined by the realization that there are vending machines on the train too, OF COURSE.pic.twitter.com/nMj67ob73F
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272. In a weird reversal of pretty much all of my life, this train restroom was much better than most stationary ones. (Flushing without touching! And something I nicknamed “ButtOn.”)pic.twitter.com/s2FRxG10dh
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273. Some Shinkansen even accommodated two… flavours of doing… things.pic.twitter.com/too5CfaUeW
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274. I also went to see the Kyoto railway museum, which was really awesome. Some of its interior design (look above) even resembled a train.pic.twitter.com/Gv7h9WA0OU
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275. A few amazing moments in that museum. First: Sitting in the cabin of the original 1960s Shinkansen train.pic.twitter.com/s4sIJuX3lQ
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276. Second: They had a powered train where you could press the actual buttons to get the pantograph up and down!pic.twitter.com/KBbPl1XLrJ
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…which was sort of a dream of mine. (My grandpa worked at the railways.)pic.twitter.com/GOnFTpQolz
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277. Third: I also touched the very wire that pantographs grab to get electricity! (And survived to tell my story.)pic.twitter.com/907P9paQOa
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278. Fourth: This really cool, heavy, and loud button with massive springs inside went up and down and opened/closeed the train doors.pic.twitter.com/wfsBhfVxW0
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279. Fifth: You can ride on the rail bike! If you’re over 120cm tall. Which I am! BTW this is not a photo of me. :·)pic.twitter.com/LXz6MSOFjV
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280. Sixth: I ate some ice cream in this 1958 dining car, now moored and converted into a restaurant.pic.twitter.com/rsCByPRRk2
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281. Also! Also!!! They had an actual split-flap display with the original control panel. You have NO IDEA how excited this made me.pic.twitter.com/fqXWwHJ3U2
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I spent so much time with it and figured all of it out (incl. some of its bugs) – at the end I was giving the Japanese people tips. That was really awesome. I really want to have one now.pic.twitter.com/llD1uLPt33
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282. I saw these beautiful diagonal line train schedules at a museum (incl. a plotter that drew them!) and I assumed they were obsolete/vintage… but then I saw them in actual use on a commuter train!pic.twitter.com/4wcfW9maNP
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283. This was a cool idea: putting a little camera atop a model train, and allowing kids to ride them, the view making model trains feel more like real trains.pic.twitter.com/dAL6kZgFMM
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284. Stepping outside the museum… The first class is called Green Car here. What it is depends on the train, it seems. In this one, the Green Car was the front car: it had huge seats with a lot of legroom, and a great panoramic view.pic.twitter.com/fEOE3mJOYD
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285. In this other train, Green Car was this system where after loading a Green Car ticket onto your transit card, you could just tap above to indicate you’re taking a seat. (It remembered your other choice, so if you swapped seats, it would un-flip your last one automatically!)pic.twitter.com/la4vco579A
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286. I also had this fun moment when, enthralled with the views outside of the train window, I realized I wasn’t the only one.pic.twitter.com/AeMrkbhgSI
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287. “Marcin, enough waxing poetically about trains. Show me more of those trash cans that look like robots.”pic.twitter.com/5Uy4DUnixh
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