Hello, I blog!
I share all my sporadic and toilet thoughts in here, because I am random like that.
Japan’s wheelchair accessibility is a complete joke.
What makes the joke even greater is that they are hosting the Paralympics in 2020. /slowclaps
I have been quiet on this blog, but offline – well let’s just say that my life has been quite a mess this year. Since losing my voice from the beginning of the year, I started learning to dance (always wanted to do so since I was a kid). It started well but didn’t quite end well. I ended up with a severe knee injury that has left me with crutches since July, and then a wheelchair since September. Yep, /slowclap for me as well.
I ended up experiencing 2 different disabilities in a year. More on that in a separate post because I learnt too much.
Unfortunately (or is it fortunately? I can’t quite decide – because I was depressed and a trip would help my mental state), we also had a trip to Tokyo planned in late October for 2 weeks and I hadn’t recovered in time.
It was a mental struggle for me whether or not to take on this trip because;
1. I would just be a burden to all the others in our travel group of 5.
2. Taking on a trip in a wheelchair sounded very daunting to me.
There was plenty to plan.
Like accommodation. One of our hotels in Nikko turned out to be staircase-only (no lift) and we had to rebook. But most hotels were already fully booked (the remaining were ryokans that are not wheelchair accessible and I can’t use futons because of my injury). So we ended up in far-flung Kinugawa.
Our decision to drive in Nikko was also largely motivated by my injury, because not all buses there were wheelchair accessible.
Another hotel in Tokyo had a loft-style bed that was not injury friendly so that prompted another rebooking.
Thankfully, there were sites such as Accessible Japan that reassured me that Japan is wheelchair friendly. (Although this turned out to be false reassurance.)
Now, this blog post is going to supplement whatever material there is out there about wheelchair accessible Japan, and I am going to state this TL;DR upfront.
TL;DR
Unless you have an electric wheelchair, you are not going to experience barrier-free access in Japan. Also, travelling to Japan is not advisable if you have a leg injury of any sort.
I am on a manual wheelchair that is human-powered – or in the case of the Japan trip, boyfriend-powered (seriously, he was pushing my wheelchair 24/7 for 14 days while navigating the intricate maze called “wheelchair-accessible” Japan and until now I still can’t figure out how he did it).
The adventures of grandma in a wheelchair
[Written at 7.18 A.M. (27th May) Singapore time, 4.18 P.M. (26th May) Vancouver time.]
It was Grandma’s first trip to Alaska! (Well, it was the first trip for the rest of us too … but the emphasis of this entry will be on grandma, non?) We embarked on a 7-day long cruise to Alaska (Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan) last Wednesday and it was beyond awesome.
For most of us, it was the activities on the cruise, the shopping and amazing scenery that dominated our memories from that trip.
For grandma, it was a slightly different story. I’m pretty sure she still has vivid memories of almost being toppled off her wheelchair and wheeled into walls, pillars and what-have-yous. There’s more where that came from, which I will elaborate further in this entry.
Considering the events of the past seven days, I wouldn’t be surprised if my grandma develops a permanent phobia to her wheelchair. Erps.
Note: My grandma can walk perfectly well. It is just that she’s fast approaching ninety and tires easily, which is why we let her ride on a wheelchair most of the time – occasionally letting her walk around so that she has some exercise.
Gran’ and her wheelchair. The airline tag on the wheelchair reads
‘priority baggage’. Teehee.
Being the funky grandmother she is, she takes everything in her stride. Her face turns pale with fright when the various incidents happen … but bursts out laughing (along with the rest of us) later on.
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