Twitter Thread of Observations and Surprising Moments in Japan Goes Viral · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Smoking Room in Japan. Photo by Nevin Thompson
When Marcin Wichary, the well-known past design lead and typographer of the blogging platform Medium, visited Japan for several weeks, he immediately took notice of the UI or “user interface” of Japanese life. The signs, buttons and general ways of doing things such as lining up for the train or purchasing a meal might be facts of life that Japanese people take for granted but are surprising to people from other parts of the world.
Over the course of his two-week stay in Japan, he starting using Twitter to document his observations about Japan's approach to everything from signage to trash receptacles. The result was a massive thread with 300 individual tweets that quickly went viral:
This epic thread of @mwichary‘s observations and surprising moments in Japan, with an emphasis on everyday UIs, is just the best. I wish this was a blog. https://t.co/L1hi2Qvlxt
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) February 12, 2018
This was Wichary's first trip to Japan, and immediately he noticed the difference between the Tokyo subway system and the BART rapid transit line in San Francisco, where he works.
11. The fare gate closed on me in a rather gentle way when I tried to walk past it without inserting the ticket.
(Contrast: San Francisco BART gate that slammed itself into my thigh and gave me a bruise *after* I paid my fare.)
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
As he live-blogged on Twitter, Wichary frequently asked for insights about the various phenomenon he encountered such as these signs notifying subway users how far above sea level the entrance is. (These signs are in case of tsunami — tsunami waves following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake towered over thirty meters above sea level in some places on Japan's northeastern coastline):
28. Does anyone know why does this subway entrance tell me this? pic.twitter.com/ix5BbCo3UW
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 2, 2018
In other ways, Wichary's trip to Japan, such as this style of analog clock commonly found in Japanese train stations, uncovered some nostalgic memories:
150. (150!)
This is a particularly Marcin-shaped mystery. I know this clock from my childhood. From Poland.
I recreated it in JavaScript. I wrote about it (https://t.co/4swcDxsmPQ). So why is it here, now, all over the place!? pic.twitter.com/ZakyxPAz23
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 12, 2018
Wichary frequently took note of train and subway signage intended to improve manners and social harmony:
60. Manspreading: A global epidemic. :·/ pic.twitter.com/2A2cReIqH6
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
147. The tone of this ad is kind of incredible. pic.twitter.com/O1BFEEudi4
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 12, 2018
Other times, he investigated the user interface of the mundane experiences of daily life in a big city in Japan such as purchasing tickets at a quick-service lunch counter:
17. Interesting system: you pay for a ticket to a restaurant in front of it, and then enter and give it to a server. No tips, and after finishing you just get up and leave? pic.twitter.com/DVkYPhPl1S
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
As a designer, Wichary was also interested in the aesthetic of Japanese currency:
23. All of the yen coins have arabic numerals… except one of them (5).
In general, only 50/100 look like they’ve been designed together. pic.twitter.com/ctioQ41m8O
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
25. I’ve been informed by @txsector that a one-yen coin will float on the surface of the water, and I can confirm this.
(As you can see, it took me a while.) pic.twitter.com/GW7Z36CYte
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
Like many visitors to Japan, vending machines were also a mystery to be deciphered:
21. This vending machine had a flap covering the banknote port. I don’t understand why. pic.twitter.com/J89hE6LQ2k
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
63. I didn’t know I had so many feelings for vending machines until I started seeing dozens of them outside, exposed to elements.
(Which explains the money cover above.)
Also, vending machines don’t seem to be gross here! Which is becoming kind of an overall theme. pic.twitter.com/iVDps94mxs
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
Wichary also noted some of the more subtle differences between Japan and the United States, where, out of superstition, buildings typically do not have a thirteenth floor:
7. My hotel room is on the 13th floor, which I love. pic.twitter.com/ZGvjMw0AR5
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
His hotel room was also a source of curious observations:
20. Super interesting hotel flashlight. There is no on/off switch. The thing that mounts it on the wall also separates the two batteries and cuts off the power.
What do I need this for, though? pic.twitter.com/K9JfzGzDiR
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
In the replies to the Tweet, it was pointed out that the flashlight would come in handy in the case of an earthquake or another event where there might be no power and therefore no lighting.
Wichary, who is writing a book about the history of the keyboard, took a special interest in Japan's approach to keypads:
First keyboard I interacted with in Japan was already kind of amazing. Mechanical numeric keypad in an ATM! pic.twitter.com/U0bnG3rWui
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
Keyboard mystery: I’ve seen a bunch of older Mac keyboards today (including the legendary black MacBook) where Control key is adorned with an extra pen icon. What is that all about? I have never seen this before. pic.twitter.com/kPgbIWecwD
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
Mystery solved! The pen was to draw attention to the menu allowing you to switch between many modes of entering Japanese. It otherwise behaved as ^ or Ctrl.
The shortcuts still work today, but the special icon and key are gone. I am not sure why the intro’ed it or removed it. pic.twitter.com/PRUr9oBkgw
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
Read the rest of the Twitter thread on Japanese keyboards here.
Wichary also noticed that signage can be overly complex with high information density in Japan.
46. Is there a name for this kind of esthetic? Is western text stretched thin in here (which I see very often) just to make the low information density slightly less unbearable? pic.twitter.com/xqFwhS9B8u
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 2, 2018
Like many visitors to Japan, Wichary was struck by the care taken in Japan to avoid disturbing others. For example, Wichary noted that construction worksites typically post a schedule to alert locals about when work will take place:
78. It seems that construction sites are supposed to tell you ahead about their work schedule for the week? Some of those displays are even electronic!
(I drew the complicated one on my trackpad. It says 解体工事: demolition work. February 4 is Sunday = no construction.) pic.twitter.com/aVUnNHaP2a
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
By the end of his trip, Wichary was impressed not only with the courteousness he observed, but how certain approaches to life were common throughout the archipelago:
You probably noticed a lot of patterns. Here’s another one. A lot of my discovery of Japan followed this routine:
1. Discover something amazing.
2. Realize this amazing thing is EVERYWHERE, a baseline.
3. Discover an even more extraordinary version of that thing, in some places.
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 17, 2018
Wichary's original Twitter thread can be read here, and he has also just published a blog post about his trip to Japan:
Apparently it’s a rite of passage to write a guide to visiting Japan after visiting Japan.
Here’s mine, with links to other good ones. If you’re like me and are planning to visit, I hope it’s useful: https://t.co/BgrTp9UK7W
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 24, 2018
This article has been updated to reflect Marcin Wichary no longer works for Medium.