4/10/2008 ==>> In the Ryokan.. 10 pm..
After the onsen..we walk walk and talk a bit..shu hui michelle denise and I..then michelle and denise go buy ice-cream while the rest of us go change money to small notes..japan even gt vending machine to sell ice-cream..haha..somemore gt quite a bit of favour too..althought we din understand japanese..but can roughtly guess from the pic which is wat flavour..haha..we then go outside the onsen to wait for xiao yuan they all..we play a bit with the foot massager outside the onsen..haha..but apparently the machine dun seem to work too..not that we play in money anyway..LOL..the night in Hamamatsu is very cooling..really like air conditioned room in Singapore..
Then we walked a bit and happened to pass by our lecturer's room..think we a bit too noisy..erm..a bit only la..haha..ermm..ok la..actually quite noisy la..lol..he then come out and explained to us abt the design of hotels that we never actually noticed it at all until he pointed it out to us..first..is the carpet of the hotel..i forget to take the photos..sign..so i used this photo which have my friend on it..haha..she very kawaii rite..now my classmate le..very sweet gal.. ><

Note that the carpet is a blue with bit of some patches of red and blue here and there..our lecturer told us that it is actually for those visually impaired people to know where they are going..by saying visually impaired..we are not saying that they are BLIND..but they can see only to a certain limited extend..the patches of red and blue are not randomly put for decorations..instead they are used as indications for those who can only see blur images to spot the differences btw each hotel room..not only that there are also differents pot of flowers placed outside each hotel room..like sunflower and many others bight coloured flowers (can tell them from the pics)..at first most of us tot it was used to beautify the hotel corridors..but apparently they all have greater uses..it is used by those visually impaired to recognise their room..

also the region where they put the flowers(can tell from pic too..is also a elbow length wall..those are also used as an support for those visually impaired to rest themselves when opening door..or for others with lower muscle tone..it was indeed a brilliant design..

Not only that they also have an area in hotel where they specially designed for the handicapped to stay..there are handicapped toilets ard the rooms so that it will not be inconvenience for them to move abt..one thing that make me even more repect Japanese's culture is that all their toilet for handicapped DO NOT have signs on them to indicate that it was meant to be used by handicapped only..people there know it..repect that..and they din used it..humm..this is sth we shd learn..
also their handicapped toliet is a bit bigger..the buttons at the sides are larger than normal toliet and with attractive colours to differshape..there are also dots on the buttons so that those visually impaired people know wat the buttons is for..oh..have I mentioned abt the Japan's staircase and lift..they are simply amazing too..for staircase..all of them are line with yellow strips to tell the visually impaired that it is the end of the steps.. I dun actually have photo of that toilet..but this is wat they have normally..note the buttons..quite interesting from singapore..haha..their toilet bowl can actually CLEAN..wow..amazing..haha..lol.. ^-^

and for their lift..all the buttons have dots on them for the visually impaired to feel..not only that..there will be voices telling you which floor you are in..and also there are mirrors in the front of the lift..again i no pics..so use my fren's..if u guys don't like me posting..pls tell me..i will put it now immed..i respect that right.. ^-^

Our lecturer told us the the front mirror is presented so that the wheel-chaired bound people can tell how much space is behind them without turning their wheelchair..so can "park" better..and also due the fact that they are sitting on wheelchair so shorter than normael people..with the front mirrors they can observe that surrounding much better..really WOW rite..
however I also have to credit Singapore for having dots on the lift buttons too..Singapore is doing quite a good job now..they are now having new bus ard..i have the photos..

With aging population coming..I believed we shd and can learn more from other country and if possible..try implenment those goods one into our country..making us even friendier country.. ^-^