Ryokan?
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Ryokan?
Hello, I’m profoundly deaf and low vision. I will be visiting Tokyo in October and I’m wondering if there are any ryokan that is accessible for people like me? Suggestions are welcome!
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5 Replies
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Hello,
I’m not aware of any…
For being deaf, I suggest you may want to bring a pad of paper with you to write and draw, or better yet a tablet with translation software on it. That way you can communicate with staff.
As for your low vision, do you use a cane? You may not be allowed to use it inside the ryokan without wiping it or putting a cover on the end since it has been touching the ground outside (the same reason people need to remove shoes). The staff will likely be able to guide you to your room etc. You will need to be careful of steps (they love pointless steps in Japan!).
Being in a wheelchair, I’ve never actually stayed in a ryokan – so that is the extent of my knowledge. Sorry!
Will you be traveling alone? If you are with someone, it should be ok…
Maybe @Wilgo has an idea of a ryokan for people with low vision / blind?
Sorry to not be of much help.
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Hello,
Thank you for your response. You mentioned about bringing a cane inside – I came across this fabulous article about a deaf blind person visiting Japan,though I think she’s hard of hearing and I’m more deaf. Anyway, she mentioned that when she visited temple/shrine, they would wipe off dirt from her cane. I’m thinking that since I have a brand new cane as backup, will they allow me to use it inside since I haven’t use it outside? Anyway, this is fun to learn about things like this! Yes, I’m going alone (am I crazy??) but fortunately, I know of two people who lives there that might assist me.
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You aren’t crazy, you are an adventurer!
Yes, I would think using a different cane inside is fine. But if they insist on wiping it, just go with the flow 🙂
Maybe you read Cristina Hartman’s article on our website? Traveling in Japan with a Visual Impairment
If you are interested, we would love it if you could share a blog post after your trip as well. Would that be a possibility?
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I actually started a blog at another site which is here. I’m not much of a blogger, but I can try! :-). By the way, how do I change @Jeremy_sasser to something else? Seems that only way to do it is to delete account and create new one, but I’d like to avoid that if possible. I want to use @aoshiatori instead.
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Great, looking forward to reading it!
As for your user name, I’m not sure you can… Try sending a message to @atf-admin to request the change…
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