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[1]Home [2]About [3]Moonbound [4]Shop From: Robin Sloan
To: main newsletter
Sent: March 2026
Good trains
A Carload of Strawberries from California, 1909, Edward H. Mitchell [5]A
Carload of Strawberries from California, 1909, Edward H. Mitchell
Just back from Japan, my fifth sub­stan­tial trip in ten years. At this point,
we have iden­ti­fied Our Favorite Places, and we simply return to them. This
kind of travel always seemed the­o­ret­ical to me, some­thing people only do in
novels … yet now there’s a fancy ryokan where they remember us, and a homey bar
in the same town where the owner shrieks: “You’re back!!”
It was my favorite Japan trip since my first. We went with friends and
dis­cov­ered that we travel well together, which I think really just means we
are all capable of enjoying things to the same degree.
An under­rated capability, that one.
Everywhere, there was such care, on scales ranging from the radius of a
cock­tail bar to the sprawl of the shinkansen. More than once, the
self-admonishment arose: “Robin, you need to pay atten­tion to this. It’s
remarkable, and it might not last forever. Pay atten­tion!”
I’m Robin Sloan, a fiction writer with wide-ranging interests, which I capture
here in my newsletter. This is an archived edition, originally transmitted in
March 2026. You can sign up to receive future editions using the form at the
bottom of the page.
As usual, this newsletter has a few dis­tinct parts. Here’s what’s ahead:
• [6]Japan thoughts: trains, books, more trains
• [7]Links and recommendations: com­puter sto­ries, street lettering,
dun­geon synth
[8]Japan thoughts
[9]The trains
I spend a lot of time in the San Joaquin Valley of Cal­i­fornia, where this
country’s first high-speed rail line is coming together, very slowly. Huge
ele­ments of the route have been con­structed but not yet con­nected. These
gleaming new bridges and plat­forms are legit­i­mately beautiful; they loom in
the land­scape like ruins in reverse. I’m a fan of the project, even though
it’s plainly a tragedy — [10]Abundance tells the com­pre­hen­sive story. Actual
track goes down later this year, and all along the route, dirt is being pounded
into place, flat and smooth.
Japan’s first high-speed lines opened in the 1960s, and its archi­tects have
had all the years since to press on: learning, extending, refining. Shinkansen
means “new trunk line”; it’s not so new anymore, yet riding those trains
remains legit­i­mately futuristic, def­i­nitely superfun. And it feels truly
shameful for the U.S. to be so many decades behind.
It’s useful to note that in its ini­tial development, the shinkansen went way
over budget — more than 2X. Yet there was never any ques­tion that it would be
completed. Think of Keynes: “Anything we can actu­ally do, we can afford.”
I don’t intend any false equiv­a­lence here; even granted major hand­i­caps for
U.S. dysfunction, the Cal­i­fornia line is a disaster. Yet there’s a hard,
grinding hope in the example of the shinkansen, which says: just finish it, so
you can really begin.
[11]The books
My Japanophilia is strongest in fic­tion. Here are some favorites:
• [12]Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, trans­lated by Ginny Tapley
Takemori, is strange and hyp­notic — I can’t think of a recent U.S. novel
that’s simul­ta­ne­ously as uncon­ven­tional and captivating. It’s also fun
to read as coun­ter­point to the cult of the kon­bini that has arisen among
visitors. (This includes me: I bow down before the Japanese 7-11.)
• [13]What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama,
trans­lated by Alison Watts, is sweet but/and also subtly radical. I
reviewed it [14]for the NYT, and here I’ll just repeat, this book is an
emblem for some qui­etly pow­erful fea­tures of Japanese society. I’d also
like to claim it for the Extended Penumbraverse; there’s no ques­tion the
strange and pow­erful Mrs. Komachi has met Ajax Penumbra.
• I’ve [15]written before about [16]Tokyo These Days, the manga series by
Taiyo Matsumoto, trans­lated by Michael Arias — his pro­found love letter
to all his editors. The story and char­ac­ters are won­derful, but/and so
is the ren­dering of the Japanese land­scape, Tokyo and beyond.
• All of Banana Yoshi­moto’s books are sweet and stylish, a plea­sure to
read: tales of life in the city. Oh and they are short! WE LOVE A SHORT
BOOK. You can choose basi­cally at random, but [17]Kitchen, trans­lated by
Megan Backus, remains her most famous work.
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That’s all Japanese work trans­lated into English. Here are some books
orig­i­nally written in English:
• [18]Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry is prob­ably a top-ten
work of 21st-century nonfic­tion. It’s pro­foundly haunting, and I’m so
impressed by Richard’s refusal to like, “collapse the wave function” of
pos­si­bility around the expe­ri­ences and encoun­ters reported by
sur­vivors of the 2011 earth­quake and tsunami. Here is reporting, in the
true sense: here’s what I saw, what I heard, what people told me.
• On another wave­length entirely, but like­wise captivating, Richard’s [19]
People Who Eat Darkness is a hyp­notic account of a grue­some crime,
offering a view of sev­eral layers of Japanese society that tourists don’t
see or think about.
• [20]How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart by Flo­ren­tyna Leow is a slim, pre­cise
memoir of living and working in Japan as a non-Japanese person — though one
who speaks fluent Japanese. It’s also simply about young life anywhere:
room­mates and jobs, hopes and disappointments. You could read Flo­ren­tyna
along­side Banana Yoshi­moto and imagine char­ac­ters from both books
meeting on a sidewalk.
• [21]Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod weaves a per­cep­tive view of
Japan’s back­roads together with a quin­tes­sen­tially Amer­ican back­story
to pro­duce an effect that is totally new. One def­i­n­i­tion of
literature, or any art maybe, is that it defines a fresh genre of which it
is the only example; I believe this describes TBOT. (On Craig’s book tour
last year, I was his inter­locutor in San Fran­cisco, and [22]you can
listen to and/or read our con­ver­sa­tion here.)
• [23]Embracing Defeat by John Dower is deep and thrilling. Even a reader
well-acquainted with the 20th-century his­tory of Japan and the U.S. will
dis­cover in this book whole new panoramas of the postwar period: rich
crunchy dynamics, cul­ture rewiring itself in realtime, and not with a
sense of erasure, but rather hyper­gen­er­a­tive reconstruction. This book
chal­lenges dull assump­tions about “victory” and “defeat”, what they mean
on the most basic level; and about “success”, too — of a country, a
society, a cul­ture. (The chapter on postwar publishing, the explo­sion of
pulp magazines, was of course par­tic­u­larly inter­esting to me.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I love Japanese mys­teries for their wacky, frigid construction — as if these
authors looked at the cold clock­work of the Sher­lock Holmes sto­ries and
said, “Oh, that’s WAY too loose and squishy.”
I’ve written before about [24]The Decagon House Murders, and more recently I
have enjoyed nearly every book in [25]this series from Pushkin Vertigo. (What a
name for an imprint — sounds like a char­acter from a novel.)
I par­tic­u­larly enjoyed [26]The Honjin Murders and [27]The Devil’s Flute
Murders. The latter was trans­lated by [28]Jim Rion, who also trans­lated [29]
Strange Pictures, which has turned into a global bestseller. I haven’t read it
yet, but [30]Robin Rendle says it’s great!
Jim has written about [31]the process of trans­lating a very strange book.
One more: [32]Point Zero by Seicho Matsumoto, trans­lated by Louise Heal Kawai,
is like a Hitch­cock movie crossed with one of those story problems: “Train A
leaves Tokyo trav­eling 200 m.p.h. … ”
[33]More trains
The best trains in Japan are the JR Kyushu trains, and those are the best
thanks to designer [34]Eiji Mitooka. You can [35]browse a gallery here, or [36]
take a look at the col­lec­tion on Eiji Mitooka’s Wikipedia page.
Here’s the luxe Seven Stars:
Trains [37]Trains
The Yufuin no Mori:
Trains! [38]Trains!
And the 36+3! I have been a pas­senger on this one. Every day, you receive a
bento lunch assem­bled from ingre­di­ents pro­duced in towns the train is
passing through:
TRAINS!! [39]TRAINS!!
It’s not just the cutesy trains that are great. Many dif­ferent models of
shinkansen roam the tracks in Japan, and, to my eye, JR Kyushu’s look the best:
TRAIIINS!!! [40]TRAIIINS!!!
And it doesn’t stop at trains! Until recently, JR Kyushu oper­ated a super­fast
ferry from Fukuoka to South Korea, also designed by Eiji Mitooka. Behold THE
QUEEN BEETLE:
Not a train [41]Not a train
(Sadly … [42]it leaked.)
[43]Links and recommendations
A Carload of Navel Oranges from California, 1909, Edward H. Mitchell [44]A
Carload of Navel Oranges from California, 1909, Edward H. Mitchell
[45]Mr. President, please, I need a faster train … 
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The latest edi­tion of [46]my pop-up newsletter is about [47]the limits of AI
automation.
In this short argument, I draw on lessons from sewing and olive harvesting, and
invest all my hopes for a non-robotic future in the great and pow­erful PAPER
JAM.
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Here is David Oks on [48]why the ATM did not (as predicted) kill bank teller
jobs … but the iPhone did. What a great post — per­fect use of data and details
to deflate a story that “seems right”.
David writes:
But by talking about why ATMs didn’t dis­place bank tellers but iPhones
did, I want to high­light an impor­tant corollary, which is that the true
force of a tech­nology is felt not with the sub­sti­tu­tion of tasks, but
the inven­tion of new paradigms.
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Here’s another post that like­wise “takes the ques­tion seriously”, and in this
case, the ques­tion is an all-timer: [49]why is the sky blue?
In my notes, I wrote:
An ideal flavor of explanation. Serious and open. “Let’s figure this out
together.”
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I loved [50]this rol­licking event at the Com­puter His­tory Museum on the
occa­sion of Apple’s 50th anniversary, 1976-2026. Chris Espinosa’s
recol­lec­tion of [51]a par­tic­ular ser­vice pro­ce­dure for the Apple III
made my day. There’s no escaping phys­ical reality!
The CHM is a treasure; if you live in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area you MUST at
some point make your pilgrimage, just to gaze at the glo­rious hulks. Last
summer, I wrote [52]a quick dis­patch from the Vin­tage Com­puter Festival,
which is maybe a bit over­whelming for your first expe­ri­ence, but always
totally spectacular.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Here is [53]a lovely memoir of a youthful career at Babbage’s, which fellow
old­timers will remember as the pre­em­i­nent soft­ware store. Yes: we used to
GO TO A STORE to pur­chase com­puter programs!
The rise and fall of Babbage’s “rhymes” com­pletely with the
dema­te­ri­al­iza­tion of other media, and in all these cases, at least two
things are true:
1. The new arrangement produces breathtaking new forms of access: it has
become trivial for basically anybody to participate in these markets.
And yet, somehow,
2. the old arrangement was tons more fun!
[54]Read Lee Hutchinson’s recol­lec­tion and tell me you disagree.
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I am waiting patiently for the launch of [55]the Slate truck at the end of this
year. I’ve been leasing a Volk­swagen ID.4 since the summer, and the actual
dri­ving expe­ri­ence is won­derful — I just want to rip the screen off the
dash­board and throw it out the window.
Come on, Slate! Give us the screen-free EV of our dreams!
Bonus: Slate’s head­quar­ters is in the town where I grew up 😌
Bonus bonus: Slate’s first fac­tory is an old printing plant 😌😌
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Here is [56]the new type­face from Mass-Driver. Robin Rendle [57]notes the
confidence of this release, and I agree with him: it’s bracing and charismatic.
Also beautiful, of course.
Mass-Driver’s [58]Lórien has become my house font for print productions, and
you’ll be seeing more of it later this year.
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My copy of [59]Pooja Saxena’s [60]India Street Lettering arrived!
India Street Lettering [61]India Street Lettering
It’s fab­u­lous — every spread glows:
India Street Lettering [62]India Street Lettering
Come on!
India Street Lettering [63]India Street Lettering
Pooja’s [64]incandescent compendium is a required pur­chase for anyone
inter­esting in typography, graphic design, and/or urban space. It exists
thanks to Blaft, the pub­lisher respon­sible for one of my all-time favorites,
[65]Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India.
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Here is [66]a recent edi­tion of The Ani­ma­tion Obsessive that is, slantwise,
a man­i­festo about effort, skill, and the power of just making some­thing with
whatever’s before you: per­haps just [67]sand and a source of light. Great
stuff.
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Here’s [68]the sta­tionery from the Streamliner, a luxe train route that
oper­ated between Chicago and San Fran­cisco circa 1936-1972:
We have retreated from the true pinnacle of coolness [69]We have retreated from
the true pinnacle of coolness
“Enroute”!!
That’s from [70]Stationery Object, a swoon­worthy project by [71]Robert
Stephens.
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Oof … JetPens with a direct hit to the aes­thetic core, [72]this video pro­file
of a Japanese note­book maker … meltdown in 5, 4, 3 … 
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Here’s the back­story of [73]a cer­tain shade of seafoam green you have seen if
you’ve spent any time in indus­trial spaces. I loved this post from Beth
Mathews — it’s beau­ti­fully presented, packed with pictures. I found my way
here [74]thanks to Drew Austin at Kneeling Bus.
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Here’s a good post by Drew, a few years old but new to me, arguing that [75]
tech’s indif­fer­ence to fashion is a con­tempt for the commons. That’s via
[76]Spencer Chang.
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Spencer, by the way, is on a roll, with recent reports on a sub­stan­tial visit
to China: [77]part 1, [78]part 2. That second dis­patch focuses on the dig­ital
side of the expe­ri­ence:
It all started to make sense when I dis­cov­ered that web­sites in China
are built on a com­pletely dif­ferent, insular sub­strate of
infrastructure. Mini-apps are made of custom forks of HTML, pro­pri­etary
ones for each major company, each with their own rules and syntax.3 From
the out­side (and as a foreigner), you can’t even access most of the apps
because they are gated behind login screens that require Chi­nese phone
numbers.
Living in China means living in an alter­nate Internet.
A weird hybrid between tra­di­tional mobile apps and web­sites, these apps
feel uni­form and imper­sonal, while stream­lining all the core parts of an
everyday app. They load fast, even on old hardware, con­nect
auto­mat­i­cally to your identity, and inte­grate directly with your wallet
for payments.
You might have read ver­sions of “the China report” before, but it’s gen­uinely
dif­ferent and useful to encounter this expe­ri­ence fil­tered through
Spencer’s gaze, his ana­lyt­ical frame: humane and tactile, rather than
com­mer­cial and abstract.
Spencer is one of the great inte­gra­tors of the dig­ital and phys­ical; [79]
his newsletter is absolutely worth following, a guide toward an alter­nate
internet of its own.
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Looking at train-adjacent art for this edi­tion, I dis­cov­ered [80]this 1909
photo of John Jacob Astor, and found myself really cap­ti­vated by his
expression:
John Jacob Astor leaning from a train window, 1909 [81]John Jacob Astor leaning
from a train window, 1909
Maybe a stretch, but I detect a trace of [82]angel-of-his­tory energy there … 
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[83]BEHOLD, GALVATRON! A few weeks ago I came across this clip from The
Transformers: The Movie, and remem­bered (or realized) that this scene in
par­tic­ular is a top-five for­ma­tive aes­thetic input of my life.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I’m a fan of the music sub­genre called dun­geon synth, which tends to sound
like the sound­track to a video game you can only dimly remember. [84]Hole
Dweller is great as a starting point. Pos­sibly my #1 favorite is [85]this
album by Rhandir and Disparition, which was in heavy rota­tion while I wrote
[86]Moonbound. That playlist was 25% dun­geon synth, 25% [87]Håkon Kornstad,
and 50% every ver­sion of Seven Nation Army ever recorded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A think tank posted a link to [88]this chart … 
USDA Charts of Note [89]USDA Charts of Note
 … [90]calling it “a slow, steady, easy-to-miss kind of progress.”
Yet … you’d have to know a lot more to make that judgment, wouldn’t you? For
example, one might ask, is the food on the right side of the graph as
nutri­tious as the food on the left side? What’s the com­po­si­tion of the
average meal on either side? And what about the wages of the people pro­ducing
and pack­aging the food?
An exercise: plot the trend in health­care costs on the same graph.
My instinct tells me that about half of the change is indeed positive,
attrib­ut­able to plain old productivity, while the other half is malign, and
we’d be better off as a society if that trend­line tracked a little higher.
Food is life’s foundation; it powers our mus­cles and our minds; who said it
ought to be cheap?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Here is an actu­ally-hilarious offering from SNL: [91]an inter­view with the
most- and least-used emojis.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Here is [92]Dirt Books! Any­time any­body dares (or bothers) to launch a weird
new imprint in the 21st century, we cheer!
P.S. I liked this recent Dirt piece: [93]The feeling of the old world fading
away
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Here is [94]an inter­view with Astrid Eich­horn, a physi­cist working on
“asymptotic safety”, which might be sum­ma­rized as “the only way out is
through”:
The apparent break­down of par­ticle physics at [the Planck] scale has
inspired some dra­matic theories. Some physi­cists argue that this failure
point in our under­standing tells us that the uni­verse is fun­da­men­tally
com­posed not of par­ticles, but of vibrating strings and membranes. [ … ]
Eich­horn and her col­leagues are pur­suing a dif­ferent pos­si­bility. In
1976, Steven Weinberg, a the­o­rist who would even­tu­ally earn a Nobel
Prize, pointed out that if you zoomed in far enough, you might reach a
place where the rules of physics would stop changing. New realms would stop
appearing; the inten­si­ties of the forces would stabilize; and gravity
would turn out to make per­fect sense after all.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Here is a fab­u­lous matchup: [95]Dwarkesh Patel inter­views Ada Palmer.
Dwarkesh is best-known for his inter­views of AI luminaries, but/and his side
quests into his­tory are reli­ably magnetic. Ada is a cel­e­brated author of
sci­ence fic­tion who is also a his­to­rian of the Renaissance.
The seg­ment [96]discussing Guten­berg and the very early days of the printing
press is par­tic­u­larly compelling. I have read a lot — really a lot! —  about
this period, yet I found new fram­ings here; I love Ada’s focus on
dis­tri­b­u­tion networks. This is just extremely fun and inter­esting all
around.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
One of the pri­vate con­trac­tors building Cal­i­fornia’s high-speed rail line
graces us with the most William Gibson-ass name you’ve ever heard: [97]Dragados
Flatiron 😎
A Carload of Potato from California, 1909, Edward H. Mitchell [98]A Carload of
Potato from California, 1909, Edward H. Mitchell
Here’s [99]a reminder, from Alan Jacobs, of the power of a phrase and an image
from Robert Mac­far­lane:
A decade ago Robert Mac­far­lane pub­lished a won­derful book called
Land­marks [ … ] which argues for the preser­va­tion and exten­sion of the
accu­rate descrip­tion of our nat­ural environments. The book col­lects,
from a range of British places, local words for local things, and
Mac­far­lane calls that col­lec­tion his Counter-Desecration Phrasebook. It
occurs to me that we need many Counter-Desecration Phrase­books to help us
pro­tect and pre­serve what Gan­dalf calls “all worthy things that are in
peril as the world now stands.”
Mac­far­lane’s focus is on the pre­ci­sion of local language, yet in Alan’s
endorse­ment I detect the pos­si­bility of broader application. For my part, I
think any and every little per­sonal newsletter or blog, if it’s con­structed
with sin­cerity and care, acts as a tiny CDP. Or per­haps it pro­vides one page
in the larger CDP: still meager com­pared to all the books of ruin on all the
shelves of the world … and so what?
CAR­LOAD OF POTATO!
From Oakland,
Robin
P.S. You’ll receive my next newsletter in mid-April, con­taining the
announce­ment of a new project and a new product.
March 2026
I’m [100]Robin Sloan, a writer, printer, & manufacturer. The best thing to do
here is sign up for my email newsletter:
[101][ ] [102][Subscribe]
This web­site doesn’t col­lect any infor­ma­tion about you or your reading.
It aspires to the speed and pri­vacy of the printed page.
Don’t miss [103]the colophon. Hony soyt qui mal pence
References:
[1] https://www.robinsloan.com/
[2] https://www.robinsloan.com/about/
[3] https://www.robinsloan.com/moonbound/
[4] https://www.robinsloan.com/shop/
[5] https://pdimagearchive.org/images/66f6eaa7-2369-47bf-a2d3-321e06af8514/
[6] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/#rooms
[7] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/#links
[8] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/#japan
[9] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/#japan-trains
[10] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781668023488?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[11] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/#japan-books
[12] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9780802129628?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[13] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781335147158?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/books/what-you-are-looking-for-is-in-the-library-michiko-aoyama.html?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[15] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/double-pulse/#books
[16] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781974738809?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[17] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9780802142443?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[18] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781250192813?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[19] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781250390585?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[20] https://theemmapress.com/shop/prose/essays/how-kyoto-breaks-your-heart/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[21] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9780593732540?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[22] https://craigmod.com/books/things_become_other_things/tourpod/04-booksmith-robin_sloan/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[23] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9780393320275?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[24] https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/decagon-house-murders/
[25] https://pushkinpress.com/collection/japanese-crime/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[26] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781782275008?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[27] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781782278849?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[28] https://jimrion.com/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[29] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9780063433083?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[30] https://robinrendle.com/notes/strange-pictures/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[31] https://jimrion.com/2025/01/23/translating-strange-pictures/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[32] https://bookshop.org/a/541/9781913394936?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[33] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/#japan-more-trains
[34] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Mitooka?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[35] https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/index.html?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[36] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Mitooka?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[37] https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/index.html?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[38] https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/index.html?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[39] https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/index.html?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[40] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishi_Kyushu_Shinkansen?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[41] https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/index.html?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[42] https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15563130?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[43] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/#links
[44] https://pdimagearchive.org/images/ba5855cc-22d7-48ce-bcdd-0220700bf5d8/
[45] https://cottonmodules.bandcamp.com/track/magnet-train?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[46] https://www.robinsloan.com/winter-garden/
[47] https://www.robinsloan.com/winter-garden/magic-circle/
[48] https://davidoks.blog/p/why-the-atm-didnt-kill-bank-teller?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[49] https://explainers.blog/posts/why-is-the-sky-blue/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[50] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCSNJgI2LFI
[51] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCSNJgI2LFI#t=32m30s
[52] https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/inevitable-technologies/
[53] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/how-i-launched-3-consoles-and-found-true-love-at-babbages-store-no-9/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[54] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/how-i-launched-3-consoles-and-found-true-love-at-babbages-store-no-9/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[55] https://www.slate.auto/en?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[56] https://mass-driver.com/typefaces/md-ui/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[57] https://robinrendle.com/notes/reading-without-reading/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[58] https://mass-driver.com/typefaces/md-lorien/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[59] https://www.instagram.com/matratype/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[60] https://www.blaft.com/products/india-street-lettering?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[61] https://www.blaft.com/products/india-street-lettering?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[62] https://www.blaft.com/products/india-street-lettering?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[63] https://www.blaft.com/products/india-street-lettering?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[64] https://www.blaft.com/products/india-street-lettering?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[65] https://www.blaft.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/ghosts-monsters-and-demons-of-india?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[66] https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/sand-and-a-source-of-light?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[67] https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/sand-and-a-source-of-light?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[68] https://stationeryobject.com/posts/streamliner-city-of-san-francisco-train/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[69] https://stationeryobject.com/posts/streamliner-city-of-san-francisco-train/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[70] https://stationeryobject.com/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[71] https://www.robertstephens.com/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[72] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_UvVavl-eE
[73] https://bethmathews.substack.com/p/why-so-many-control-rooms-were-seafoam?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[74] https://kneelingbus.substack.com/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[75] https://reallifemag.com/worn-out/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[76] https://spencer.place/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[77] https://news.spencer.place/p/chinese-period-of-my-life-a-visit?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[78] https://news.spencer.place/p/the-chinese-internet?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[79] https://news.spencer.place/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[80] https://pdimagearchive.org/images/c5961d1a-89c0-4506-89a2-8c458935710b/
[81] https://pdimagearchive.org/images/c5961d1a-89c0-4506-89a2-8c458935710b/
[82] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Novus?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[83] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzUU-aiDm-c
[84] https://holedweller.bandcamp.com/track/an-empty-tankard-of-ale-at-the-floating-log-inn?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[85] https://disparition.bandcamp.com/album/troika-ep?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[86] https://www.robinsloan.com/moonbound/
[87] https://hakonkornstad.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-sarajevo?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[88] https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=100002&utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[89] https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=100002&utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[90] https://x.com/HumanProgress/status/2028636514414915783?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[91] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59CpJqCbxXs
[92] https://books.dirt.fyi/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[93] https://dirt.fyi/article/2026/02/the-feeling-of-the-old-world-fading-away?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[94] https://www.quantamagazine.org/where-some-see-strings-she-sees-a-space-time-made-of-fractals-20260311/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[95] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIhVfGbREA
[96] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIhVfGbREA#t=58m12s
[97] https://www.dfcp23.com/?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[98] https://pdimagearchive.org/images/ba5855cc-22d7-48ce-bcdd-0220700bf5d8/
[99] https://social.ayjay.org/2026/02/25/a-decade-ago-robert-macfarlane.html?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[100] https://www.robinsloan.com/about?utm_source=Robin_Sloan_sent_me
[103] https://www.robinsloan.com/colophon/