LapLap

I'm afraid this is more of a ramble and rant than a meaningful collection of useful information.

To be honest - there are so many obstacles, issues, annoyances as well as highlights it's really hard to know how to catalog it all.

For instance, I've been told that there is software available in Japanese so that people can enter their starting point and destination in Tokyo and get a detailed route with instructions. Unfortunately, we didn't know about this until near the end of our trip - but neither of us read/write Japanese anyway so it would have been of limited use.

We found the bathrooms at The Strings and in the Junior Club Floor suites at the ANA Intercontinental are probably ideal for wheelchair users as they are part of a wet bathroom one could wheel a chair into. But then, most bathrooms in Japan are 'wet' allowing you to shower on the floor of the room - the issue is whether the room itself is large enough to serve your purposes.

But then there were unexpected problems like returning to the ANA after 11pm and finding that the only signposted access was via a flight of stairs or via an incredibly steep road used by taxis (utterly gruelling and very dangerous). No one had mentioned the secret elevator access route which could only be accessed by entering the car park beneath the buildings next to the hotel (trust me - you couldn't possible figure it out without being told). As most Tokyo taxis can't fit in any but the smallest most compact wheelchairs, even hailiing a cab and getting to the hotel reception this way isn't an option. If I'd been on my own I would have been completely stuck - effectively barred from the hotel. And as you have to cover an awful lot of extra ground in a wheelchair it's easy to get tired by the end of the day... dealing with this as well was not welcome. Another concern was which button do you press to lock the automatic door of the bathroom? Will the red button with unfamiliar kanji lock the door or sound an alarm? (I spoke to management at ANA about both these issues - didn't mention the hallway carpets though - they had an annoying tendency to make the chair veer to one side, and into the wall... interior designers should push wheels over the carpets they consider for long corridors)

Travelling before 9am is more or less impossible. The Yamanote line is great until someone throws themself under it... a one and a half hour trip took over 3 hours as a result. As you need to use the same access/exit barrier as everyone who needs to speak to a supervisor about their tickets etc.. you need to queue for a sizeable portion of time every single time whereas an abled bodied person would just walk through the barriers.

About the only advantage was cutting through the lines at the airport - but when you weigh in all the extra time and hassle everything else took... it's not that much really. But I'm not conveying here how much care and attention was given by staff at the stations and on the buses. We were always asked if we needed a ramp to get on the trains at the stations. In the buses the driver would put a ramp out, assist me on board and the chair would be strapped into place (an assistant would then stand behind me). The attention on the Toei buses was almost embarrassing.

Another positive aspect of travelling in a wheelchair in Japan is that the Takkyubin delivery service makes it so much easier. As cases and baggage can be transported across the country cheaply and quickly one only needs to travel with a minimum of belongings. As wheelchairs are so limited when it comes to storage space, this is a real boon.

I did get to try one of the most amazing inventions I'd ever seen at Komagome and Shimbashi stations. Neither of these stations had elevators at certain points. Instead a staff member would close off an escalator - look completely normal, nothing strange about it at all - keep running it until the steps with a few markings appeared, fiddle with the controls and...
Like a 'transformers' toy the stairs would morph into a 3 step long flat platform with spikes to keep the wheels from moving and the whole platform then glided up/down. Sugoi!!!
Obviously it's much more convenient to use an elevator, but this was sooo cool! (an so unexpected - our jaws dropped the first time we encountered this).
Photo: http://bp3.blogger.com/_n1sjt7SfiAw/...escalator3.jpg

Perhaps because our own circumstances meant that we were spending double the time in the stations to what we'd spend normally and using the same exits, I did see more wheelchair users than I ever have before (a sizeable amount around Sunshine City in Ikebukuro particularly) but the extraordinary thing about Tokyo - and why I'm so proud of what this city has achieved, is that we could work out so much without being able to read Japanese. Even if the signage was hard to see and the sheer numbers of people made sightlines difficult, most of it could be understood and key employees we came across actively tried to be helpful. It's usually very hard to pick up routes and strategies in a short time - London demands a degree of familiarity with its routes and processes before getting around in a wheelchair becomes straightforward. Tokyo allowed us to hit the ground running. There were pitfalls - the Shiodome areaa (newly built, so particularly galling) was impossible to navigate - one would have to be extremely familiar with the area to know how to traverse it without using any stairs. And we got a shock at Daikonyama station which is on a deep curve - the gap between stations is extremely wide. I had to get out of the chair in order to get out - but the commuters surrounding me were very helpful and I was helped out by several people.

Basically we were determined to do the same things we would have done without the chair. This was more or less possible in Tokyo. I did have to spend a couple of days confined to bed, not able to move at all, but with the views from our hotel rooms this was still worth being there, so wonderful to have a change of scenery having spent so much of this year stuck inside our tiny London apartment. I'm sure our trip has done a lot towards my recent recovery.

And when I think how little our accommodation cost us in Japan... frankly, it's embarrassing. Thanks to FT, we averaged out at about $30 a night for the two of us. To be honest, that was the limit of what we could afford.

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It is normal to argue isn't it?
Couples argue in the car because someone's directions meant a massive detour. I can't imagine a couple in this situation (where it had been going on for months) not bickering occasionally.