Travelling With a Physical Disability in Japan | Tokyo

Information | History | View | Sightseeing | Video

1. I really enjoyed this. Very informative but also just enjoyable to watch and learn.
   I'm curious as to what life is like for someone like me in Japan. I am transgendered and I plan on coming to Japan at some point over the next few years. I'd love to get foreigners perspectives and also native perspective. Also I'm interested in knowing more about those who navigate Japanese life with disabilities. Hope there is a part 2
2. Who in the world would give this a thumbs down? Great video! So informative and helpful. Really appreciate the work you're putting in to making these for the new & old viewers.
3. Newer know if someday one of us will need wheelchair.
4. Life where I'm from, I sort of have a physical problem so I know how some people feel, and its pretty strange if you already dont know im 11 and I had haert surgery when I was 6 monthes old and 11 years later I get back surgery. So you can say I'm a little weird, I don't mind If you think I'm at all,
   I'm used to it because even though nobody says it there thinking I'm weird in there head.
   So its okay if you say im weird
5. I'd like to know what it's like with a mental disability ><
6. This has made me think so much about the regional rail and subway systems in my city. We have a lot of big assisted living centers here for elderly people (as in my apartment building is surrounded by them on three sides) so there are accessibility vans on the street as commonly as city buses. A lot of them are contracted by private institutions, though, they are not available for people to use at any time they need to get around.
   
   For our train that takes us into the city, the gap between the train car and the platform can be over 12 inches wide. It is a bit dangerous and everyone has to watch their step. My 4 year old son is on the autism spectrum and even though we walk in the city and use public transportation most of the time (since I never learned how to drive a car!), it still feels tense to step over that large gap with him. Even now, I lift him up over it every time because he is a bad mix of unobservant and bold. I feel like it must be very scary for wheelchair users to deal with the gap, even though the conductors will help each person get over.
   
   My son actually attends a school called United Cerebral Palsy where much of the facility is a community center for people living with cerebral palsy. In the children's section, they have "reverse mainstream" classrooms where half of the students have typical development and their parents pay tuition for them to go there just because it is a great program, and the other half are students like my son who have a developmental delay or disability or a physical disability. There are children his age in the classroom who are wheelchair users.
   
   There is one little girl who has cerebral palsy who was my son's first friend (and it is very hard for him to make friends or even see the value in having a friendship, so it was a big deal to us when he warmed up to his first friend his age). He has seen how she gets on and off the bus using accessibility tools for the entire year he's been attending pre-school. He's played with her when she's using her chair and when she's not (she actually taught him how to play tag with crawling). Her language development is very good (a lot of little girls seem to be very smart and talkative around here!) and she looks out for my son. One time, we forgot to buy more applesauce cups at the store in time to make our son's lunch and she noticed that he didn't have his applesauce when they ate. When the bus came home, she gave me a stern talking to! She said "He EATS applesauce!!!!" and her tone was like "hey buster, you messed up and I'm sticking up for my friend!!"
   
   I think that being around students who have all different types of needs does help all of the children. In pre-school settings, it can help kids like my son feel more motivated to use the toilet consistently or to try playing with other children instead of only doing parallel play. Students who don't have any special needs help via what they call "peer modeling" so that students with developmental delays in particular can learn in a different way than hearing from teachers, who are authority figures, so we listen to them a bit differently (even when they're highly trained specialists like all of my son's teachers).
   
   United Cerebral Palsy is great because the entire facility is built to be accessible and they help people who need transportation get to and from there for free. They also have a playground with a wheelchair accessible jungle gym that has lots of different things to play with. I think my son and his friend help each other understand others in a very intuitive way because even though their needs at school are very different, they can see that it's important to the teachers that their needs are always met so that they can get on to the fun parts: playing and learning
   
   Anyway, cheers! I loved this video and the newr one
7. excellent video, congrats
8. great video. I am a civil engineer in the US. I was trying to compare if other countries have similar ADA design like the US.
9. When people design with the disabled in mind we all benefit. ;)
10. That helped a lot! A friend who is a helper for a disabled person here in Germany plans a trip to Japan with her client. This video makes planing easier and really motivates to go to Japan even in a wheelchair!
    Thank you guys so much!
11. Look at the likes to dislikes!! you know you have make a great vid when the like % is that much.
12. great doku
13. The toilet situation is the same in the UK. 85% of the time the disabled toilet is unisex and separate from the other toilets.
14. great video
15. i'm waiting for the part 2, :)
16. Cool video. Thanks!
17. What font did you use for the transition clips such as "trains", "taxi", etc
18. It would be really nice it the trains and buses had the workers as nice and helpful as they showed. Most trains that I have been on they really don't help very much or are very grumpy when they do have to help. Sometimes I feel like I almost have to apologize because I am in a wheelchair and have a disability because the way they act.
19. I have spina bifida from Michigan USA. I always wanted to go to japan but was worried about how I would be treated. If I had a opportunity to go I would. thank you very much for this video. say hi to the kids for me. Pat.
20. Thank you for posting this. I've been wanting to travel in Japan for a long time, but I was concerned about how accessible it was for someone with a disability. I'm not in a wheelchair, but I would have difficulty with going up and down stairs or traveling on foot, or even gaps at train stations. I don't see many people covering this topic and I'm looking forward to seeing what you post about living in Japan with a disability.