Tokyo Street Braille

One of the first things you'll notice in Tokyo is the yellow lines on the sidewalks with little raised grooves and bumps you see snaking their way all over the city, like a super version of the freedom trail, or that green line from those Fidelity commercials (will the trail lead you to your sound financial future, answer - no).

It turns out they are actually a form a street braille to help the blind navigate the city. What's really astonishing is how extensive the use of this system is. These lines are in every single train station, no exceptions. They can be found on big roads, and small streets.

Pretty much everywhere you would need to navigate around a lot of people. It's particularly valuable because things rarely move in straight lines in this city.

The braille has a bit of a system to it. Tiles with linear ridges for straight walking and tiles with round bumps for turns, traffic intersections, stairs, etc.

Traffic intersections also have audio cues as to when it's safe to cross.

See in the picture below that the braille path leads to the stairs by the railing, and picks up again at the bottom.
I would just like to reiterate how impressive it is to implement a system this universal on the scale of a city like Tokyo.

Although to be honest I'm at a loss for why it's all painted bright yellow.