Rolling in Japan

A gentle breeze sweeps across my face as I sit sipping green tea watching the sunset in the idyllic surroundings of Tokyo’s Wild Bird Park. This is a scenario that I never dreamt was possible given my mobility limitation. I have spent most of my life in my hometown of Alexandria, Virginia with only limited out-of-state travel experience. So my excitement was palpable when I learned I had been chosen as a delegate for Mobility International USA’s (MIUSA) cross-cultural exchange program to Japan. Finally, I would get the opportunity to broaden my horizons and travel beyond the confines of Virginia and its surrounding states into a foreign land over 8,000 miles away. The night I learned I would be traveling to Japan my mind was racing 1,000 miles a minute. Where would we be staying? What types of food would we be eating? How would we overcome the language barrier? What types of service projects and workshops would we take part in? But, the biggest question on my mind was would I be able to access all of the accommodations I needed to travel and live comfortably in Japan for two and a half weeks? I knew MIUSA had years of experience planning cross-cultural exchange programs for young people with disabilities. However, I still had a lot of fears concerning the feasibility of traveling out of the country. I have Cerebral Palsy and use a power wheelchair for mobility. I also need assistance with activities of daily living such as dressing, showering, and doing laundry. Meeting my care and mobility needs is a challenge even when I’m not traveling, so I was skeptical as to whether these needs could possibly be met in a foreign country.
In the months before the trip took place I remained in close contact with the MIUSA staff and explained to them in detail the types of accommodations I would require on the trip. They were extremely helpful and knowledgeable about how to best plan and implement the accommodations that I needed. They helped me locate and fly a personal assistant to Japan. I was then able to hired her to assist me in my daily care needs. MIUSA also worked with me to assure that the housing and transportation arrangements would meet my individual needs. By the time we departed for Japan I was beginning to put my fears to rest and focus on the purpose of the trip, which was learning as much as possible about the Japanese culture and disability rights in Japan.
The first portion of the trip was spent doing a service project at Tokyo’s beautiful Wild Bird Park. In this lovely setting we spent our days giving back to our host country. We helped to spruce up the park by trimming overgrown bamboo and making bamboo curtains for the lobby. The hot and humid weather, the soulful chirps of the surrounding birds and the gentle swaying of the surrounding trees accompanied by the laughter and happy voices of my fellow MIUSA delegates and staff is something that will be indelibly impressed in my memory. One of the most remarkable things about this experience was that everyone had varying abilities and limitations, but we all worked together in a way that maximized our abilities and minimized our limitations to accomplish our common goal of helping to make the Tokyo Wild Bird Park even more beautiful.
After completing our service project we headed for the Sunrise Hotel Inn in Kaizuka City right outside of Tokyo. There we would be taking part in a series of activities and workshops with a Japanese disability rights group called “Footloose.” The “Footloose” members were very enthusiastic about our presence and shared information about disability rights law, as well as, poignantly told stories about their experiences living with a disability in Japan. I vividly remember one young man who had a look in his eye that conveyed he could conquer the world. He spoke English beautifully and eloquently told me of his struggle to participate in non-segregated education. He was currently taking classes at a local university, but his mom had to attend every class with him because the university would not accommodate his need for a note taker or other rudimentary accommodations’ he requires to independently participate in class. This is just one example of the dozens of talented young people with disabilities who I met on my travels. Sadly many of these people’s dreams are being stifled by the inadequacy of Japanese disability rights laws. However, the “Footloose” members seem to have a misconception that in America the disability rights laws are flawless, which is not by any stretch of the imagination the case. I and the other delegates worked to educate them on the strengths and weaknesses of our country’s current disability rights legislation and cleared up any misconceptions. The knowledge I gained from “Footloose” taught me not to take for granted the rights that I have in the United States. It also gave me an even greater drive to fight for better disability rights in this country and around the world.
In addition to the valuable knowledge we gained during the workshops we had an opportunity to learn first hand what it was like to live in Japan. The other delegates and I participated in a variety of activities that gave us an opportunity to truly immerse ourselves in the Japanese culture. We visited Japanese shrines, took part in an authentic Japanese tea ceremony and learned how to play the bongo drums from a Japanese arts group. I will forever remember the tranquil beauty of the hand-crafted shrines, the delicious taste of the freshly brewed tea, and the booming, rhythmic sound of the bongo drums which created vibrations that ever so slightly rocked the floor beneath us. The knowledge, respect, and appreciation for the Japanese culture I obtained from taking part in these activities has been permanently impressed upon me in a way that could not have been achieved by merely learning about the culture in books or movies.
Navigating our way through the city to these activities and even our free time made for unforgettable adventures. The Japanese public transportation system is reasonably wheelchair accessible but some of the technology used to accomplish accessibility is different than in the United States. I first discovered this when we entered the train station and could only locate an escalator. We inquired about this and the station manager said “the escalator is wheelchair accessible,” a panic stricken look came across my face as I envisioned myself trying to use the escalator in my power wheelchair! But I soon learned that my fears were unfounded. With the touch of a button the stairs of the escalators were transformed into a flat platform with guard rails surrounding it allowing wheelchairs to safely and easily be transported. Using the escalator for the first time was not the only novel experience I encountered while venturing my way through the cities of Japan. During rush hour in Tokyo the trains are often so tightly packed with people that train station personnel have to stand on a platform to make sure people's jackets and umbrellas don't get caught in the doors. My heart pounded as I sat witnessing this rather surreal scene. How would I possibly fit into this amazingly cramped train? Remarkably I was able to board the train without even running over anybody’s toes and safely arriving at our destination which happened to be another novel experience, a karaoke bar.
The other delegates and I spent the evening singing along to Japanese music videos as the English lyrics scrolled across the screen. The new experiences I had in Japan gave me the courage to broaden my horizons once I returned to the States. I make it a point to go out and try new things on a regular basis now because if I can try new things a world away, nothing is stopping me from broadening my horizons in my homeland.
Even though I learned something valuable from each and every moment in Japan, my home-stay visit is perhaps my most treasured memory. It was the activity where I truly felt most connected to the Japanese Culture. Each MIUSA participant was given the opportunity to stay with a host family for the weekend. At first I had conflicting feelings about the home-stay portion of the program. I was thrilled to get to know a Japanese family on a personal level, but I was also wary to leave the comfort zone of our hotel and the other delegates who I had begun to form a very close bond with. My host family was a lovely couple who were members of the disability rights group we had been working with. I was completely awestruck by their home which was wheelchair accessible and even equipped with an elevator. After my personal assistant and I got acquainted with the layout of the house we were treated to a traditional Japanese home cooked meal complete with pumpkin soup, shrimp and rice, along with my first taste of soy milk sushi. This food was accompanied by terrific conversation that gave me and my host family a unique glimpse into each others lives. Even though we live a world apart from each other I was amazed at how similar the struggles we encountered as people with disabilities were. We shared countless stories of the frustration and feelings of exclusion fostered by the inaccessibility of our communities and the misconception that people with disabilities are “abnormal” and not equal to those without disabilities. That night as I lay on a tatami mat trying to fall asleep I reflected on the universal nature of the obstacles we encounter and realized more than ever the need to reach across international boundaries and work united to remove the socially constructed barriers that inhibit people with disabilities from reaching their full potential. There were differences between my home stay family in the food we ate, style of our homes, and clothes we wore, but the connection I felt towards them will last forever because in the stories we shared I realized that our struggles as people with disabilities are inevitably intertwined. Conquering my fears and gaining knowledge about the Japanese culture and disability rights gave me an opportunity to evolve as a person and the drive to continue evolving. My Japan experience did not end when we landed back in the States, I carry it with me as I pursue my Master’s degree in Disability and Human Development from the University of Illinois at Chicago and am dedicated to fighting for rights of people with disabilities worldwide.