I boarded the shinkansen the other day and couldn't believe what I saw: everything! Yes, things I never used to see in the shinkansen are now extremely visible, in your face, in big, bold letters making it very hard to avoid reading them. The aisle and seat numbers were all in much larger fonts. Even the explanation of the "seat tray in front of you" was in large Japanese letters. Apparently, they've moved from the "silver seat" on trains to the "silver car." It seems that the aging population has influenced font size in shinkansen trains to such a degree, that it's like looking into a train car through a magnifying glass.

As I walked down the aisle to my seat, the train car rather reminded me of a nursery school with posters on the walls with the names of bugs and days of the week enlarged.

Could it be that so many old people forget to bring their glasses that they can't find their seats? What if there is an emergency? Could we count on someone coming out with giant flash cards with large arrows that say "Emergency exit this way"?