E462 - A Japanese Ritual to Improve Your Habits

In the early 1900s, an aging Japanese steam train engineer named Yasoichi Hori was growing increasingly concerned about his deteriorating eyesight.

Hori's job relied on his ability to quickly read small track signals at a distance while moving at a high rate of speed. The cab he worked in was at the back of the locomotive, behind a large boiler, which meant that he often had to lean out a side window to catch the signals coming up on the track ahead.

In the small, cramped cab, it was just Hori and his...