• Japan outside of the big cities

      Outside of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, what places are you interested in visiting in Japan?

      Has accessibility made it hard to get to them?

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      DavidHase and Stephane DEFREYNE
      6 Comments
      • We are coming to Yokohama soon, and after Kyoto we go to Kagoshima. I will report accessibility and informations about our journey right after 😉 Next year we hope to visit Sapporo, Hakodate and Aomori…

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        • I’m in Japan right now, landed today, headed to Kobe, Okayama, Kyoto, Nagoya and Chiba. So far, assistance from JR has been great. I would have definitely been overwhelmed by the trains without it on my first day. Some trips and classes that I wanted to sign up for were not available for wheelchair users but I did manage to find some that work for me. I’ll let you know as it goes!

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          • I’m planning our first trip to Japan and would be very interested in visiting ryokans in more rural areas, especially if they have onsen that are disability-friendly or private. (I found a couple ryokans that had good accessibility information, but they were also not close to public transit. A few others look accessible but kind of sterile. Disabled folks like beautiful nature experiences, too!) We’re visiting in February so I’m worried about encountering snow if I go too far outside of the central part of the country. While we could escape south, I have no idea what the accessibility is like the more we go outside the hubs when it comes to relying on public transit, sidewalks, etc. I’ll be traveling with a Whill C2, though I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user who walks with a cane for shorter distances. My daughter and husband are coming with me. I wouldn’t need to take the one universal/barrier-free room in a hotel if there was decent information about accessible entrances, doorways, charging, etc. I love to do research and now have about 7 future itineraries, but wow, this is a research hole. We’re only there for 8 nights, so I might keep it simple with Tokyo and Kyoto (day trip to Nara), but if it were the US, I’d feel more knowledgeable and adventurous. about access.

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            • @carriegriffinbasas Getting the universal room has been problematic for me because I did my reservations through booking.com. After I left a message about it, One hotel told me I’d need to call them and pay a higher fee. Other hotels told me the one room they have was already reserved. So instead I verified the width of door openings to make sure I’d fit. My chair is pretty narrow (22 inches) and this first hotel I’m in I fit, but just barely. It’ll be interesting to see how it works for the others. I wanted to stay in Bizen but couldn’t find a hotel in my price range that I was sure would work so I’m in Okayama instead and I’ll take the train to Bizen for the day. But I agree, getting outside of the main cities, there’s not a lot of information.

              • @sherriepetersen That’s good info. I’ve noticed that even when rooms are advertised, they might be just for one person and not a family. Are you reaching out in Japanese or English? I imagine it’s good to break it down as a series of questions such as: Are there any steps to your entrance? Do you have an elevator? What’s the width of the door opening to my room? I’ve heard some rooms have random steps inside, too.

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                • @carriegriffinbasas part of why I like using booking.com is because you can specify all that about the elevator, step free access etc. but I think in Japan they’re very protective of their universal rooms so they don’t release them to sites like booking.com. It’s been more challenging to find accessible rooms because of that because who wants to call every hotel in a given area to find out if they have an accessible room available? That’s why I use an aggregate site like booking.com or Expedia so I can narrow down my selection to what is most likely to work.

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