• Bappity@lemmy.worldEnglish
      130·
      11 months ago

      don’t tell America. pretend it’s multiple automobiles welded together and they’ll like it

      • Uranium3006@kbin.social
        70·
        11 months ago

        I honestly think we should build normal light rail stations with RGB gamer lights and crap and hype it like it’s futuristic tech. it works for musk’s tesla taxi tunnel so it should work for actually good public transit too. maybe make the bodywork on the trains look like some dumb sci-fi movie

        • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          10 months ago

          Some LED strips, diffuser channels, and an ESP32 are all you need to RGB anything. It’s shockingly simple to do this now.

    • ReallyZen@lemmy.ml
      37·
      11 months ago

      Duh, we have high-speed rail in Morocco. It’s called Al Boraq and is the best way to blast from Casablanca to Tangier.

      And it is not overpriced like in France, where the tgv is more expensive than a taxi to the airport, your plane ticket, and then another taxi.

      • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        10 months ago

        I thought I was the only Moroccan on Lemmy.

        I also live in an area that doesn’t get served by the Al Boraq. We don’t have trains in general over here and I am jealous.

        I also learned about the Al Boraq’s existence the hard way, because in the summer of 2022, my family had to drive me from Casablanca to Tangier and back by car, which took us like 3 hours on one trip.

    • Professorozone@lemmy.world
      34·
      11 months ago

      Don’t quote me on the exact time but I heard somewhere that they run so close to schedule that a bullet train arrived something like 18 seconds late and the company apologized for the delay. ( might have been a minute or two but I recall it was really, really short. )

      • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
        10·
        11 months ago

        Switzerland doesn’t really have a high speed rail network. In fact they design against it. Indeed the country is very small so it’s not a huge deal but then again there are flights between Geneva and Zürich so it’s large enough for that.

        Their rail system is by far the best in Europe though and one of the best in the world only surpassed by the likes of Japan. They just aren’t really know for high speed rail.

        • sapetoku@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          10 months ago

          Switzerland is very mountainous and has pretty fast trains too, although not Shinkansen-fast. Swiss trains are expensive and comfortable and the vista is pretty much always great.

        • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
          6·
          11 months ago

          We’ve been waiting for Germany and Italy to upgrade their railways for a decade now, we invested billions in our alp transit system, but it can’t get used properly without the connecting infrastructure

          In other words, no need, we’re already far ahead

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      11 months ago

      I’d kill for a fast track to New Orleans, Atlanta, Little Rock, Tulsa, Nashville, all that. Ply me with cheap beer, let me chill and ride. What a dream.

      • Azal@pawb.social
        3·
        11 months ago

        Kansas city… what I’d kill for a fast track to Chicago, St Louis, Denver and the like…

        I mean fuck, at least we have Amtrak to Chicago and one to St Louis… however only runs once a day, takes as long as driving as long as the priority that goes to freight trains doesn’t delay too much.

    • KuraiWolfGaming@pawb.social
      1·
      10 months ago

      Would love to be able to take a sleeper train to the border with Canada, then have one of my friends from Toronto pick me up so I can visit them.

  • odium@programming.dev
    184·
    11 months ago

    On the flipside, something most developed countries consider normal but would blow Japanese minds is the ability to do all “paperwork” on your phone or laptop without any paper ever being printed anywhere. Japan is somehow still a country of fax.

    • Squiddles@kbin.social
      141·
      11 months ago

      I heard Japan described as being “stuck in the year 2000 since the 1980’s”. I think South Korea fits the original question better than Japan nowadays.

      • imkali@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        13·
        11 months ago

        I’m there right now from Australia, which is often considered one of the most cashless societies and yeah, it’s really a shock.

        To be honest I kind of like it, and the way they manage it.

        • Ucalegon@lemmy.world
          8·
          11 months ago

          Here in the Netherlands you can pay practically everywhere electronically (even the door to door collectors for charities carry a qrcode in addition to their collection box) , but if you go next door to Germany you’d better bring cash if you want to buy anything.

      • fidodo@lemmy.world
        8·
        11 months ago

        And when it isn’t cash only it’s a completely random grab bag between credit cards, transit cards, QR codes, app payment and e money. Just hope you have the supported option of like 20 options.

      • thrawn@lemmy.world
        4·
        11 months ago

        They’ve made a stunning amount of progress in accepting credit cards in the past couple years though. I’m there pretty regularly and the shift has been wild. By spring 2023 I didn’t really need cash anymore. By fall, I used cash maybe twice.

        There was one thing I was sure I’d need cash for— nope, the hotel paid them and added it to my tab. Back in the day, that mostly happened only if you skipped out on a reservation and the restaurant wanted to collect the cancellation fee. Which has never happened to me so I guess I’m not sure it worked exactly like that.

        I know a lot of people here hate credit cards and only use cash, but it’s honestly a pretty large hassle to get cash in every country you visit. Using the same card everywhere is way more convenient and cheaper (exchange fee + no % back like with a credit card)

      • ferralcat@monyet.cc
        1·
        10 months ago

        I’ve heard it’s just more of a burocracy thing. A friend there once told me he always puts the date wrong on the top of documents because there is a person who’s job is to double check your work. They’re judged on how often they find mistakes, so it’s easier to put something blatantly wrong at the top that easily fixed so they can quickly find it and he can move on.

    • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
      3·
      10 months ago

      We are getting more and more stuff, but they often have a really shit UX. We can do some stuff on PC since the “My Number” card system, but that also requires installing all kinds of software, only works in certain browsers, etc.

    • RainfallSonata@lemmy.world
      3·
      11 months ago

      You can fax at your local public library. It was only about six months ago that my state’s social services dept. stopped requiring faxes.

  • _number8_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    159·
    11 months ago

    sorry this is gross:

    i do not understand american’s aversion to the bidet. why would i want to wipe my ass with dry fucking paper rather than water? why why why. like it’s somehow ‘gross’ to use water. but scraping at wet shit with fucking tissue paper is hygienic and normal?

    • blazeknave@lemmy.world
      64·
      11 months ago

      American with bidet for 2.5 yrs. I hate shitting anywhere else now. Need a shower to get a new ass. Day is ruined.

    • kadotux@sopuli.xyz
      23·
      11 months ago

      Somebody once said it to me like this: “If you faceplant into a pile of shit, would you rather wipe your face with a dry paper, or use water for cleaning”

    • thezeesystem@lemmy.world
      22·
      11 months ago

      This is also gross. There’s a lot of men in the US that thinks touching there ass is gay so they never clean them.

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
      18·
      10 months ago

      Pretty much every thread we have in this community, someone comes along to say “you should pressure-wash your asshole”. I’m mildly bemused that this is what Lemmy obsesses over.

      • Jojo@lemm.ee
        16·
        10 months ago

        It’s not just Lemmy, the sentiment is on Reddit and such as well.

      • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        10 months ago

        I’ve always heard it explained like this (which I wholeheartedly agree with). Imagine you’re hiking a trail in the forest, and you trip on a rock and fall. By chance, you land on turd of excrement, luckily it only smears part of your arm and elbow with shit. Would you be fine just taking a piece of toilet paper and scraping it off? Or, would you feel compelled to wash it off with water, perhaps also soap?

        Why wouldn’t you just use paper, if you scrape hard enough it wouldn’t even smell and be just as clean, arguably?

        If you would at least use water, why do you extend to your elbow a courtesy that you don’t extend to your anus?

        The point is that there’s a lot of people who walk through life with a dirty asshole, but then try to act morally superior regarding personal hygiene, and I think that that’s not right.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
        5·
        10 months ago

        I was in Asia and got pretty horrible food poisoning. My wife suggested we head over to this Japanese mall. Spent the day there. Use the toilet, walk around, buy something, use the toilet. That was the ideal toilet to have in that situation.

    • banneryear1868@lemmy.world
      14·
      11 months ago

      I don’t understand this either, toilets already require running water and have plenty of room to integrate bidet function. It’s not fancy tech or anything… in North America that’s sort of how they’re marketed though, with an emphasis on the settings, like its something you have to learn to use.

    • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
      11·
      10 months ago

      I live in Japan. My wife and I recently went to visit my family in the US and I hated every minute of the toilet situation.

    • RavenFellBlade@lemmy.world
      9·
      10 months ago

      I own a BioBidet 2000. My friend Brian has one at his house and he convinced me to just try it. I did. And then I ordered one for myself before I left the bathroom.

    • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      11 months ago

      It’s like having a second toilet seat. Takes more room.

      Not from the US and live in a condo, so I’m speaking from a purely practical standpoint. My condo is not that big and having a bidet would mean that I have no place to put my washer and dryer at.

        • enkers@sh.itjust.works
          37·
          11 months ago

          That’s not really traditionally true. Modern ones are integrated into the toilet seat, but they used to be a standalone fixture.

          • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            10·
            11 months ago

            Yes, I was thinking about the old designs, haven’t brushed up on new designs.

            Sure, in that case, I would consider it, why not.

          • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
            3·
            10 months ago

            Check out the new ones. They fit right between the toilet seat and the bowl lip. Super slim. Plus, always clean ass.

            You know those poops you take when you wipe once and it’s already clean? It’s like that but ALL THE TIME.

            • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              2·
              10 months ago

              Damn… this does seem like the way to go.

              I will most definitely look this up, seems like a real time and money saver 👍.

        • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          5·
          11 months ago

          I suppose there’s also a mini electrical boiler in there somewhere, so the water’s not cold when it hits my ass.

          Cool though, will look into this, seems like a nice soltion, toilet paper is getting more and more expensive.

          • iamanurd@midwest.socialEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            Some of them have it, but that complicates the installation. I bought one without a heater ages ago, thinking I’d hate it. I actually hardly notice the cold water. Your butthole isn’t great at sensing hot vs cold.

            • Willy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              11 months ago

              My butthole is pretty good at sensing temperature. During the winter I have to try and use the bidet fast with the room temp water before the cold outside water gets to my turd cutter.

            • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
              1·
              10 months ago

              Here, it was below -25C (-13F) last night, and it has generally been below -20C at night for weeks now. Our water is now very cold. Believe me when I say your asshole will notice that.

              I will say tap water at this temperature is fantastic to drink though.

    • willis936@lemmy.world
      6·
      11 months ago

      I used them while visiting Europe. They made my ass incredibly itchy. I’m good with the paper and washing my hands.

      • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        10 months ago

        Uhhm, I’m not a doctor and this is not medical advice, but. You should talk to a proctologist about hemorrhoids or other blood circulation issues. Anuses are not supposed to itch when lightly sprayed with water, or ever for that matter, and that sensation might be a sign of tissue inflammation. Don’t ask me how I know this.

        • willis936@lemmy.world
          2·
          10 months ago

          This was many years ago. The itching didn’t happen immediately. Good advice to not take medical advice in social media comments.

    • egitalian@lemm.eeOP
      2·
      10 months ago

      Completely agree. I was raised with bidets/ water cleaning. TP That’s just a dry off or catch those last few drops

    • ferralcat@monyet.cc
      1·
      10 months ago

      Cultures who use bidets and not the bum gun will always confuse me. Ones a robot strapped to the toilet that does a medicore job at one thing, then other is a cheap water gun you can use for all sorts of shit (pun intended).

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.idEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      They’ve become increasingly common in recent years. I don’t think there’s as much of an aversion as you appear to imagine.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.world
      6·
      11 months ago

      As I understood, lots of Japan is rural, and travel between places outside of the main cities and tourist spots is limited. It’d be like saying the US has good public transport because of the NY subway…

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        7·
        11 months ago

        I got out to the middle of fucking nowhere on a mountain by taking the Shinkansen, then a local small train, then a bus, and finally a taxi because I didn’t want to wait 20m for a shuttle bus

        Compared to California (home, comparable size and layout tbh) it’s way easier to get to remote places period thanks to the public transit system

        Quite literally to do the same trip I did in Japan in CA I’d have Maybe a slow ass Amtrak line to get me close-ish in twice the time of the Shinkansen and still have an hours drive of my own rented car to get there

      • NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social
        6·
        11 months ago

        I’ve traveled from tiny towns in northern Japan to major cities like Tokyo. All on public transportation. Bullet trains, local trains, they’re very well connected to each other.

      • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
        2·
        10 months ago

        We have trains out to hubs in the countrysides here as well. Generally, they only run hourly the in a lot of the countryside.

  • rowinxavier@lemmy.world
    111·
    11 months ago

    They have a device which progressively shines a light on a piece of paper while moving across the page and converts the brightness of the reflected light into an audio signal. Once it reaches the edge the paper is incremented and the process repeats. Each of these segments of sound are sent via a standard telephone connection to a similar device on the other end which uses the sounds to reproduce the image on the original paper on a new sheet of paper. This can be used to send forms, letters, black and white pictures, and even chain letters. It also forms the basic underpinning of a significant fraction of formal communications with landlords, employers, medical systems, government offices, and so on.

  • SnausagesinaBlanket@lemmy.world
    104·
    11 months ago

    Japan’s current fiber-optic commercial internet connections use optical fiber transmission windows known as L and C multi-core fiber (MCF) bands to transport data long distances at record speeds. Meanwhile we (USA) have fiber back to copper and Cat3 for the last few hundred feet in most cities at best making the entire idea into a bottle neck.

    • falsem@kbin.social
      26·
      11 months ago

      There are a lot of very good reasons to switch back to copper for the last portion of a run. I highly doubt that consumer internet in Japan is terminating fiber directly into peoples’ computers. Fiber is a lot more expensive both for the line, to run it, more prone to breakage, the network cards are more expensive, etc. It’s really not needed for most purposes.

      Also no one uses cat3 for data and it can’t be run for ‘hundreds of feet’. And LC fiber IS used in the US - that’s a kind of connector not the kind of fiber.

      • Dave.@aussie.zone
        20·
        11 months ago

        I highly doubt that consumer internet in Japan is terminating fiber directly into peoples’ computers.

        You run fiber to the home and gigabit ethernet or whatever internally in the premises. All your other complaints re: cost and etc aren’t really an issue for last mile consumer grade fiber.

        I have seen installers run a fiber drop cable across from a power pole, bring it down an outside wall , then staple it to joists under a house, cleave off the end and stick a mechanical splice on it, bang it in the power meter, all good, plug it in the fiber modem, good to go in less than 20 minutes. All this stuff uses standard components and technology that’s been available for 10+ years now.

        Also no one uses cat3 for data and it can’t be run for ‘hundreds of feet’. And LC fiber IS used in the US - that’s a kind of connector not the kind of fiber

        It’s probably the standard “last mile” half assed solution where they decide to use existing phone lines and VDSL from a box down the street instead of biting the bullet and running fiber.

        • falsem@kbin.social
          5·
          11 months ago

          No it’s not? Fiber is a bad solution for short runs for residential use inside people’s homes. Copper can pull 10 gig speeds or more.

          • TheMurphy@lemmy.world
            1·
            10 months ago

            Well, almost all apartments in the city I live in has fiber. They all have a box in a corner somewhere.

            Then we pull a standard ethernet cable to our router and we run full speed.

            Maybe I’m not knowledgeable enough on the area, but why is that bad?

            • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.eeEnglish
              2·
              10 months ago

              They are arguing that inside the nlhouse ople don’t use fiber, they use the ethernet copper cable from the router. Which is like, fine, okay, that’s true, but also not at all what people are arguing and not something that should be required to be pointed out in this context.

              People are arguing that in some US cities the Internet distribution is done through copper for the whole building/complex, and just like you, in my home there’s a fiber port into my router, which then I use cat7 copper cables for my stuff. But up until my router there’s fiber, which is awesome.

              Anyway I hope this clarifies it.

      • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
        2·
        10 months ago

        Typing from my Tokyo fiber-to-the-home connection now. They ran it off the pole, installed a little thing in my house, ran the fiber to the modem they make me rent, and it works like a charm.

          • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
            2·
            10 months ago

            I don’t think I understand unless you’re expecting me to buy some router and network cards that natively support fiber to go from the modem (which is fiber in from the pole outside).

      • TheMurphy@lemmy.world
        2·
        11 months ago

        Yes, but nowhere compared to the Netherlands and Denmark

        Ofc the size of the countries makes it easier.

      • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
        8·
        11 months ago

        No, the average internet download speed in the United State is about 171 Mbps. Though disclaimer, I’m not sure of the exact reliability of that number, different sources are reporting quite a range of speeds, though I don’t see any under 100 Mbps average and I see many reporting well above this. You’d also have to consider median vs average since people with fiber sitting at gigabit speeds may be dragging that number up, median may be lower.

        https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/fastest-slowest-internet

        There are certainly some areas, especially rural, that struggle though. And upload speed is often much worse unless you have fiber. Major cities are definitely getting much better than 10 Mbps down though.

      • lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca
        5·
        11 months ago

        Cat 3 isnt actually a thing, but people call house phone wiring that. Runs DSL quite well.

        • Dave.@aussie.zone
          9·
          11 months ago

          Cat 3 is a thing and is basically unshielded twisted pair. You can abuse it quite a bit from its voice grade days to cram a few hundred megabits of VDSL over it if it’s only from your house to the curb.

  • Atlas_@lemmy.world
    97·
    10 months ago

    Takkyubin.

    If you have a large suitcase or other parcel it may be unwieldy to walk around Tokyo or another city with it. Subways only allow one suitcase of a certain size, so you might have to take a much more expensive taxi.

    Instead you can go to a desk at the airport and have your luggage delivered same day or next day to ~any hotel, subway station, or convenience store. It will be insured and kept safe for you there to pick up. And at the end of your trip, you can send it back. The price for this convenience? Around $10.

    This is not only a good demonstration of Japanese trust and customer service, it’s also a legitimately hard logistics problem. I daresay that such a business could not succeed in the US both because of our defensiveness and sprawling cities.

      • Creddit@lemmy.world
        32·
        11 months ago

        I’ve tried it, and I ate the whole plate, but I wouldn’t do it again.

        Raw chicken tastes like it smells, and it’s just inferior to every other sashimi - not outright repulsive, but just not as good.

        I honestly don’t understand how those specialty chicken sashimi places stay in business. I guess there must be an audience for it, but I can’t imagine why.

          • Archer@lemmy.world
            7·
            11 months ago

            You have to be in the South. Now that I think about it, Florida sushi sounds like a euphemism for gator roadkill. Florida gas station sushi sounds terrifying.

            • teamevil@lemmy.world
              4·
              10 months ago

              Haha I did get some gator from a truck stop tiki bar, it was not good either… I’ve lost control of my life.

      • MinorLaceration@lemmy.world
        6·
        11 months ago

        It’s completely normal for stores to keep cooked, deli style chicken on non-refrigerated shelves all day. I don’t trust it.

  • chiu@lemmy.ca
    71·
    11 months ago

    Automatic opening doors but they don’t open by a proximity sensor, they open when you press the button. This is the optimal solution as the door doesn’t open needlessly but still allows for ease of access.

    Ordering machines, where all your menu options are clearly listed and priced. Pressing on a combo of buttons will print a receipt which you can sit down and show the staff/cook your order.

    Water (hot and cold) tapped straight to your dining table for self serve drinks.

    Unfortunately becoming less applicable with the smartphone domination finally reaching Japan, but their flip phone technology.

    • _number8_@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      11 months ago

      taco bell in particular is embracing the kiosks and it’s wonderful. they have signs in the lobby saying ‘order at the kiosk’ even. and why wouldn’t you? why do people in the US have this pig-like stubbornness where they must have a human stand there and ‘PeRsONaLIze tHE iNtERacTion’ or some shit

      • Nightwind@lemmy.world
        9·
        11 months ago

        Because I don’t want to be bombarded with ads and “did you consider this offer” shit and take 5 minutes to use some usability nightmare? Because I do not want to touch a greasy screen that 362 people used today without washing their hands after taking a shit? Because I do not support corpo greed that will not rest until every employee has been fired?

        “BUt I LiKe tOucHy fLaSHy SCreeNy!!”

        What are you, morons?

        • Guntrigger@feddit.ch
          10·
          11 months ago

          “Would you like fries with that?”

          “Would you like to supersize that?”

          “We have an offer on…”

          “Paying by card? Type your pin into that well used machine. Cash? OK hand me the piece of paper that have touched hundreds of hands and maybe nostrils”

          • KazuyaDarklight@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Maybe my people are bad at their jobs but my fast food people just take the order without any real upsell most of the time. PIN is only for debit. I almost never have to actually touch payment controls these days. NFC tap and away.

        • glarf@lemmy.world
          4·
          11 months ago

          Why should I have to do everything myself when I’m at a commercial establishment? Why is interaction with a human a bad thing? I absolutely hate self checkout for the same reasons. Quality of service is valuable and humans benefit from interaction.

      • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        7·
        11 months ago

        There was an article published last year, maybe the year before, where they tested the touch screen kiosks in McDonald’s. Every single one of them has traces of faeces on it.

        Even if that wasn’t true, it takes me significantly less time to tell someone my order than to scroll through however many sub menus the restaurant has decided to put their food into, and then select the options for each item and add it to my basket, then check out.

        • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
          18·
          11 months ago

          Everything has traces of faeces on it, this fixation on it seems irrational when you put it into context. The burger meat comes from a dead animal that spent it’s life wandering in a field and trampling it’s own shit. The fries come from the root of a plant grown in the dirt. The bun is made from wheat which was probably infested with mice. You yourself are a biological machine that turns food into energy and discards the waste. Your body has a tube filled with faeces right now.

          Yes, we try to keep waste separate from food, but the world is not a clean-room.

          • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            5·
            11 months ago

            All of those things are cleaned before being consumed. The touch screen menus are one of the last things you touch before touching and eating your food.

            The world may not be a clean room, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to deliberately interact with someone else’s faeces, especially when I’m about to eat.

              • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                2·
                10 months ago

                Strangely enough, you’ve made me realise that I haven’t for a while. Not a deliberate thing, it’s just that everything I’ve bought in person recently has been with a contactless method.

            • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
              2·
              11 months ago

              Doesn’t matter. There’s feces everywhere. When you smell a bad bathroom, a fart, your own poop it is because it is in the air all around you. You’re nose is actually detecting the particles of shit in your nostrils. It is on your clothes, on your skin, on your face, on your hands.

              The test used to detect trace amount of feces would likely find feces on door knobs, stove dials, clothes or anything else often touched in your house right now.

              • Nepenthe@kbin.social
                1·
                10 months ago

                Please be one of those people that washes their hands instead of this functioning as some broad, sweeping excuse because “it’s already everywhere.” I don’t know how else fecal matter would be expected to travel to a stove dial.

                • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
                  1·
                  10 months ago

                  I wash my hands all the time. I’m not voluntarily gross. The tests will find trace amounts but if you don’t wash your hands after going to the bathroom, you are a gross person passing on loads of bacteria that is exponentially more than the testing will find.

                  I appreciate the distinction though. There are definitely people that live like that. There used to be a guy at a place I used to work who used to dig in those big trail mix jars people put out sometimes instead of dumping them into something or even dumping them into their hands. Once I was in the bathroom (washing my hands) and saw him leave the stall and just walk straight out. Now I can’t see those without thinking about that. I’ll never touch those things again.

        • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
          5·
          11 months ago

          That’s because there’s feces on every person all over them. Your nose works because it detects chemicals of something. If you smell feces it is because it is inside of your nose. Feces is in the air. Smell a fart? It’s now on you. Bathroom smells like shit? It is in the air around you and on you.

          Just about 20 years ago when all those soda fountain dispensers tested always had feces detected on them, it wasn’t because some bandit was going around the world smearing shit on them every day, it is because it is always every where.

          According to the BBC article that talks about the McDonalds touch screen, they say the same thing.

          • qyron@sopuli.xyz
            1·
            11 months ago

            As someone that has to work in very close proximity to feces, smelling it is a good sign. Not smelling it is the alarm bell.

        • shani66@ani.social
          4·
          11 months ago

          I didn’t even consider that, America is just filled with ‘people’ who barely even qualify as such. it’s no wonder we can’t have nice things.

        • TAG@lemmy.world
          4·
          11 months ago

          Having to crawl through multiple menus to order is not that big of a deal for restaurants. They don’t value your time, they value their staff time (because they have to pay for it). There is probably very little ongoing cost to double the number of order kiosks while every additional human taking orders needs to be paid minimum wage. The restaurant owner watches with hate as their money slowly melts away while you decide if you want pickles, fried onions, and jalapenos on your burger.

          • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            That’s a good point. I could be in the restaurant for an hour trying to order, and as long as there are other kiosks available, it wouldn’t make a difference to them.

              • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                1·
                10 months ago

                Yes, that’s the point that TAG made. It’s something that I hadn’t considered, and it’s a good point.

                The fact that it’s something shitty that businesses do doesn’t affect the fact that TAG made a good point.

      • xor@sh.itjust.works
        7·
        11 months ago

        i just want to pay cash, otherwise i prefer kiosks… but i see a future of hostile, nagging UI design…
        like at some stores self checkout, you have to click 80 different confirmations and give your phone number, email and social security number…

        • chiu@lemmy.ca
          3·
          11 months ago

          The auto kiosks in Japan take cash and they are also mechanical and not touch-screen based (at least in most stores). They are tactile buttons. :D

    • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      11 months ago

      Water (hot and cold) tapped straight to your dining table for self serve drinks.

      This in particular sounds awesome, speaking as a heavy water drinker who always feels like a bit of a heel having to pester busy wait staff to come over and refill my water glass a bunch of times.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        10 months ago

        I love places where you can just get it yourself. Rare here in North America, but all over the place in Korea

    • MinorLaceration@lemmy.world
      8·
      11 months ago

      I often see buildings in Japan that have a manual sliding door followed by either a push button or proximity automatic door. If I am going to have to open one door myself, I might as well open both. If one is automatic, the other might as well be too.

    • Zellith@kbin.social
      6·
      11 months ago

      Automatic opening doors but they don’t open by a proximity sensor, they open when you press the button. This is the optimal solution as the door doesn’t open needlessly but still allows for ease of access.

      Ordering machines, where all your menu options are clearly listed and priced. Pressing on a combo of buttons will print a receipt which you can sit down and show the staff/cook your order

      I see those all the time over here in my European country.

      • anon6789@lemmy.world
        12·
        11 months ago

        I work in a pharma research facility, so people can have literally any disease or chemical on their hands, so we have a lot of doors with hand wave sensors.

        Just wag your mitts in front of it, and the door opens. They’re on the wall a few steps before the door, so the door is usually open by the time you get to it.

        • Fallenwout@lemmy.world
          3·
          11 months ago

          I work in a hospital, we use these long vertical elbow buttons or rfid readers with a badge which is also touchless.

          And if I need to push a button like in elevators, I use the knuckle of my ring finger.

          Some even have this little touch tool on their Keychain to touch screens or buttons.

    • Firipu@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      The hot and cold water thing is not common at all. A few sushi places and bars have it. But it’s quite rare tbh.

    • DABDA@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Automatic opening doors but they don’t open by a proximity sensor, they open when you press the button.

      I think it would be cool to have a hybrid system where you can wave/nod/bow to a sensor to activate it, but also implement an open standard frequency that can trigger it so people with reduced mobility can mount a transmitter on a wheelchair/cane etc. or just use their cellphone. Would eliminate having any external equipment that would be exposed to weather or vandalism and is one less common surface for the public to have to touch.

  • curiousPJ@lemmy.worldEnglish
    57·
    10 months ago

    A mindset of quality.

    CNC Machines that are built in Japan are so much Mount Betterest than their ‘Made in America’ counterparts. Even under the same company name.

    Visit any shop that requires quality around the world and you’ll see Japanese made machines almost everywhere.

  • solrize@lemmy.world
    57·
    11 months ago

    Refrigerators that make way less noise than the ones we have here. Japanese more often live in small apartments so noise is a bigger nuisance. But, those refrigerators are ridiuclously expensive by our standards. I had been interested in buying one, oh well.

  • fidodo@lemmy.world
    51·
    11 months ago

    Their ability to actually build things. The amount of construction projects I saw while visiting was insane, and they get it done fast.

  • DingoBilly@lemmy.world
    50·
    10 months ago

    Can’t believe noone has mentioned the hot beverage vending machines.

    Its so fucking nice to spend $1-$1.50 and just get some hot tea or coffee right there without issue. And they’re everywhere so you can pretty much rely on them.

    So much more convenient than having to go to a coffee shop so you can pay $5 for the same thing, and the vending machine version still tastes great.