Traveling with an Ostomy
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Traveling with an Ostomy
My Husband and I are planning a trip to Japan for our fifth year anniversary. This last September I had my Ostomy surgery and have been worried about this trip because I was not sure how I could deal with changes and stuff in Japan. But after doing a bit of research I found that Japan seems to be very Ostomy friendly, with public restrooms designed to help those with Ostomies.
Now my question is, what hotels are rooms with Ostomy restrooms? I know many have wheelchair restrooms but I am not sure if they also accommodate Ostomy folks as well. Is there a good source on where I can find these answers?
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6 Replies
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Hello!
Yes, you are right that the majority of multipurpose toilets (ie accessible toilets) are ostomy friendly. They have a mark with a green person and a plus on their abdomen and call it “ostomate” (オストメイト) here. (See attachment.)
Hotels have barely any information on services are available for users in general, let alone ostomy users.
I’ll need to do some digging on the web in Japanese I think!
Could you tell me the cities you plan to stay in? That will help narrow down the search.
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Tokyo for sure and possibly Koba, Osaka and Kyoto. The trip is planned for about a year off from now so I am not totally sure yet…
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Sorry, another question.
Do you plan to stay in a “regular” room, or an accessible room?
The regular rooms will definitely not have any equipment, but even thinking back, I’m not sure I have seen ostomy equipment in accessible rooms…
Worst case scenario would be using the lobby toilet.
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Hi again @Lightdanger.
I was recently at Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku to look at the accessible room. They do not have anything for ostomy in the room itself, but the accessible washroom on the ground floor was fully equipped and ostomy friendly.
I expect that this will be the pattern throughout Japan.
As you start to decide on hotels, let me know and I can ask the hotels directly if you like.
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I had a feeling that might be the case. Honestly that seems like the best I could hope for. I guess since rooms would come with showers and the shower should have a hand spray attachment that would work for bathing and cleaning purposes. Though I am making assumptions here… from my limited knowledge of the way bathing works in Japan (from anime and and youtube shows like “Life Where I’m From”) I assume that hotel room showers/baths would at least be some what similar to the standard of the country.
Thank you I will check again when we are more set on where and the dates we wish to stay at different places. Though that does remind me, there is a capsole hotel called Book and Bed that I was curious about. By any chance would you know anything about what sort of accessibility it might have? My husband loves mangas (we have a room in our home that is full of the mangas he has collected over the years) and I thought that it might be really cool to stay there, since there are quite a few locations (four or so from my understanding). Again thank you for all your help.
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There can be a fair bit of variety in the bathrooms at hotels, but most do have a spray handle. Most hotels have some pictures on their websites.
I just looked at the Book and Bed. I generally don’t bother looking at capsule hotels since they are not accessible. This one seems to be no exception with small beds/capsules and a shared bathroom:
“Shared shower, toilet and shower space are available 24h with other guests. Please be quiet for other guest stay when you use.”
But they might just let you drop by? Here is their address: [email protected]
Let me know when you start to narrow down hotels and I can then ask about ostomy facilities if you need me too.
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