As you walk the streets of Japan, one will notice yellow bricks with grooves in him on most all sidewalks.
No, this is not the yellow brick road to see the Wizard of Edo but a very cleaver way to serve a certain segment of their population in need.
This yellow brick path typically runs the entire length of sidewalks, train stations and even some private areas. When you walk on them they are grooved and some times you see parts that have dots instead of grooves. This yellow brick road serves the visually impaired population. As the blind walk the streets they use their walking stick to mark their path. They follow the grooves to know they are heading in the right direction and when they hit the spots they know there is an intersection of some sort. These paths are found just about everywhere we've been and many Gaijin don't understand its purpose. Pretty cool eh?
They don't have much in a way of ADA for people in wheelchairs that I've seen. Most buildings don't have ramps and if they do, it's used for other purposes than for people in wheelchairs since they can go as high as a 30 degree incline.
Waking up at 7 am, I started work and caught up with many e-mails. So the day started late for us as we went to lunch at an overpriced cafeteria. They food was good but not worth the money we spent. We then came back, did some more work and writing. It's laundry day today so we took a couple loads down to get it washed. Dinner consisted of an udon shop and we went to penguin city to shop at a "walmart" style shop looking for a battery charger for my camera.
Wow, what a normal day for the third say in Japan. Day 4 will prove to me more interesting as we get up early and travel to more distant destinations in Tokyo. Some by bike, some by bus, and some by train!
- new blog Posted from my iPad
Location:２丁目,Shinjuku Ward,Japan
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