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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
3w
Departing London; little bit moist. Shanghai πŸ”œ

Pleased to have an entire row to myself 😁
An A320 sits on the tarmac with brooding skies above and water pooling on the ground. The photos is taken from an aircraft, and distorted by the rain
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
3w
Time for plane no. 2.

I enjoyed the 10 minutes spent landside at Shanghai.

Culturally, even though this is a fairly major international airport, it felt very different to the West.

The sheer number of staff milling around! The immigration agents had a sort of parade with their stamps.

Security felt rather dated in comparison, although certainly effective. My bag was dissected several times!
Shanghai airport roof; a single span cantilever (I think?) with steel frame and wood inserts
Same as before, but in the departure hall..
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
3w
The local currency here.
Suica card, held in the palm of a hand
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
3w
Salted herring and tuna broccoli salad is the ideal breakfast πŸ‘ Japan has already won me over.

Other Western tourists are eyeing the options with great suspicion!
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
My Suica has been vandalised!

It transpires this has a leuco rewritable coating, so special products (like this 1 day season) are literally lasered onto the front (including a map!) and overwritten/removed once used.

Extremely extra but very cool. I've never seen one of these in the wild before.

www.ricoh.com/technology/tech/062_laserrewritable
A Suica card. Over the top appears to be a blue printed ticket - it's a Tokyo 1-day ticket.
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Other important infrastructure in Tokyo:

The ubiquitous NTT phone, in very well kept and working phone booths (cc. @eloy I've definitely seen these on eBay)

CYBER, whilst grabbing sushi with @ripper
NTT green public telephone
CYBER sign taken from below, looking up
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Some more telephones, because apparently this is a thing now.
Two green NTT telephones on pedestals, side by side
A green NTT telephone in a sort of box, with some closed shutters behind it.
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
And a study in brand guidelines and iconography for the World Expo 70, held in Osaka that year - my favourite neocat_heart

Which other event needs iconography for a Monorail? 😁
Three Expo 70 logotype posters in frames
A selection of Expo 70 merch in a display case. It's a variety of things from notebooks, tickets pamphlets etc.
A selection of icons in a display case, from top right to bottom left: - disabled - staircase? escalator? - P with a person? - V with a person? - prams
More icons. Top right to bottom left: - smoking - question mark? Info? - luggage lockers - umbrella - stairs up - luggage with tag - lost luggage - envelope? Post? - phone - escalator up - monorail - phone - officer? - stylised car/buggy thing? - taxi - warning power - green diamond - pram - disabled - bus - metro - food - dessert - do not touch - no smoking - men - women - V with person - fuel - first aid - cash dispenser (Yen) - child(ren) - people not allowed - P with person
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Note that the UK pagoda (presence) was typically tasteful and muted; not trying too hard to be conspicuous but yet prominent enough to stand out from the crowd. /s

It appears the obsession with flags is deep rooted.
A model of the Expo 70 layout. Prominent in the foreground is the conspicuous UK pagoda, with a massive union jack painted onto the roof. I suppose it achieves the goal, since I can't tell you at a glance which other countries are in shot. If you want more info, I suggest looking up the map
A close up from archive footage of the tasteful design..
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Some more Expo 70 photos.
A fairly brutalist concrete building
I don't really know how to describe this. I'll just link to the wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_Sun
The Canada stamp in a display case
The remains of the space frame main expo hall structure. In the background is the Tower of the Sun structure
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Brief interlude to declare that I've found the best bar in Osaka. It was absolutely rammed yesterday; people just kept coming!

Open very late, serves good (local) beer, fried chicken and gyoza. What's not to like?

Everyone coming through the door gets a personal welcome from the chef πŸ™‚

GPS: 34.6735112, 135.4983739
Google Maps: maps.app.goo.gl/aZki1FDEbTVSFhPT6
Looking down a bar from a weird angle. A glass of beer dominates, with some fried chicken to the left
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Now for some hydroelectric infrastructure photos from the rather pretty Kuobe Gorge.

This is definitely extremely touristy, and there's a much more interesting infrastructure tour available once they fix the earthquake damage 😬 Still, nice to see some green!

There are multiple dams going up the gorge; each flowing into each other. The railway was built to support construction and is still used today to get material up the gorge.
A hydroelectric power plant in a gorge. You can see the water inflow pipes going up the sides, amongst the green tree cover.
A secret tunnel going into the side of the gorge, many signs (presumably saying you can't go there) and tracks leading into darkness.
Some steps disappear up into the foliage. There's a large wooden sign in Japanese
Another gorge shot, showing the steep sides and the power plant at the bottom
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
A station is being rebuilt here in Nagoya.

So they are paying a person to stand in direct sun and blow a whistle, each time a train approaches. As you can see, the worksite is completely bounded by fencing.

It looks like a horrible job.
Looking down on a worksite in a concrete building. There's a railway track running through it
Looking the other way down the worksite.
Looking at the worksite from the side from an adjacent platform canopy. There's a substantial fence between the live railway and the worksite. Some large steel structural beams extend out the site, but it's mostly still a concrete shell.
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Some more telephones, to balance things out. One is on a Shinkansen!
Two more green NTT phones sitting on a ledge.
An old cordless phone attached to a partition wall
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Luggage lockers are underrated and we should have them in the UK. Plentiful and happily exactly the right size for my suitcase.

I guess if your case is considered oversized by Shinkansen standards then you're out of luck.

Tied to the indefatigable IC too, so no receipt to misplace...

(I know why we don't, Japan seems to manage...)
A line up of metal luggage lockers of varying sizes. Some have green LEDs to indicate their availability
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
Some random gebakje photos from today:

1. JR reservation system (MARS)
2. DENSO instrument cluster from the 80s
3. DENSO BMS and battery
4. Brother Takeru

The last is the most interesting and I'd never heard of it; Japanese wiki here: ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/γ‚½γƒ•γƒˆγƒ™γƒ³γƒ€γƒΌTAKERU

In classic Japanese style, everything must be a vending machine. And so this is a vending machine for software! You insert a floppy disk, make your selection and boom.

Sadly this didn't catch on πŸ˜”
A large computer workstation from the 80s with a very very large application spefici keyboard (Japanese) and a CRT kinda to the side. If you look closely, you can see a ticket printer below. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B9_(%E3%82%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%A0)
A digital instrument cluster from the 80s. It's illuminated in blue but isn't displaying any values.
A DENSO BMS and battery. The placards read (truncated): Battery ECU the First Generation Prius (1997) ECU that detects battery voltage contributing to fuel efficiency and driving range was installed in the fest-generation Prius. The development request arrived less than a year before. Lithium-Ion Battery Pack (2012) The battery pack functions, storing regenerative braking power and preventing vintage drops during engine restarts. This chuu nike significantly enhances fuel efficiency and driving range.
A large metal cabinet. It's three strips and the middle is yellow with a CRT in it, kinda like a arcade machine. On the left are floppy drives. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BD%E3%83%95%E3%83%88%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%BCTAKERU
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Hugh @hugh@social.crablab.uk
2w
I heard fedi likes trains (especially @aetios). So here's some trains!
Four Shinkansen in a row
Yellow Shinkansen!
Some older Japanese trains.
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Jeder neocat_floof_googly_woozy neocat_flag_agender πŸ”œ Mizukon @jeder@miau.jeder.pl
2w
@hugh @aetios you forgot about me baa
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