Barrier-free does not mean roll-in shower

What barrier-free means in a Japanese bathroom

The Japanese bathroom is built around washing first and soaking after. In the classic layout the whole room is waterproofed, with a floor drain outside the bathtub and a detachable shower on a hose: you wash sitting on a stool on the wet floor beside the tub, then soak if you want to. Many hotel rooms, some accessible ones included, have a moulded unit bath instead, where the shower is over the tub.

A room on Tokyo's official list of accessible lodging is step-free, with wide doors and rails, and it usually still has a tub. The list asks for a room door of at least 85 cm, a bathroom door of at least 80 cm, no step and rails. It does not ask for a roll-in shower, and roll-in showers are uncommon at any price.

In a washing-floor bathroom, a traveller who cannot step into a tub does not have to: they wash seated on the floor beside it. In a unit bath they have to get over the rim, onto a bath board or a chair in the tub, which some hotels lend. A traveller who cannot sit unsupported needs a wheeled shower chair, covered below.

What hotels say when you ask them in Japanese

Ask in Japanese and hotels answer with a description rather than a label. One Tokyo hotel said its accessible room has no step, and described its bathrooms as Japanese-style, with a washing area you can use seated on a chair. A seaside hotel in Hyogo said that in its deluxe rooms you stand in the tub to shower, and that its two superior twins have a shower booth only, with a step of 30 cm into the booth in one and 10 cm in the other.

Ask for the step in centimetres

Ask how high the step is, in centimetres, because a yes or a no to "Is it accessible?" does not tell you whether a ramp or a helper will be needed. Two Osaka restaurants were asked about their entrance step on the same day: one said about 15 cm, the other one step of about 30 cm.

A lakeside resort in Shizuoka said the bathroom of its accessible twin has a step of about 20 cm. Asked whether it lends a shower chair or a step stool, it said yes to both, but numbers are limited, so they should be requested with the room booking. Ask what a hotel lends, and ask early.

In Japanese, ask: 「客室のシャワーは、浴槽と別に椅子に座って使える洗い場またはシャワーブースですか（入口の段差は約何cmですか）」. In English: is the shower in the room a washing area or a shower booth, separate from the tub, usable seated on a chair, and about how many centimetres is the step at its entrance?

The chair that rolls in

There are two different chairs here. Many hotels lend a basic shower chair, often free, that stands in the washing area or in the tub, and for someone who can sit unsupported it may be enough. A wheeled shower commode chair, which a carer can push into the washing area with the traveller seated, is a different object. A few hotels lend one with their universal rooms. Otherwise it is hired from a care-equipment rental company, which brings it to the hotel. We have hired one, and it did not fold, which made moving it between cities a headache, so check before you order.

A care-equipment renter usually hands the chair over in person, to the hirer or someone acting for them, so plan to be at the hotel when it arrives, and get the hotel's agreement first. Moving it to another hotel is not always simple either: one care-equipment renter's terms treat a move to another address as a return and a new contract, so ask before you plan the route. Our note on hiring a hoist covers how these renters work.

A power chair sent by courier is easier to take in. Asked about a hired power chair, an Osaka apartment hotel answered within a day that it would hold it before check-in, free, and asked for the guest name, the booking number and the check-in date on the delivery slip. Our note on renting a WHILL explains that side.

Before you book

Ask the hotel, in Japanese, about the washing area and the step, and ask what it lends before you hire anything. If you need a true roll-in shower, they exist but are rare. The hotel's floor plan shows whether a room has a separate shower at all; it does not show the step into it, so ask for that in centimetres.