Stories - experiences around people living with disability
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GENERAL STORIES
Kerri's trip to Japan
Kurashiki is one of Christchurch’s sister cities, and Independent Fisheries, along with the Christchurch City Council, wanted to send two students who are involved in the sports and arts area, to Japan.
I, along with Trisha Ventom of the Christchurch City Council, Justin Muschamp of Sport Canterbury, Stephen Krammer, the other selected student and our caregivers (our mothers Jannis and Noeleen), left New Zealand on April 13th and returned on the 25th April.
When we arrived it was a huge culture shock. Everything was so foreign. Japanese culture and language are completely different from New Zealand. The first day there I was pining for some good old kiwi culture. I soon got over my home sickness and began really enjoying myself.
The Disabled Association in Japan organised our itinerary and it was a really packed twelve days. We did a range of different activities from visiting schools, work places that employed disabled people, to sightseeing and visiting a theme park. We also visited the Mitsubishi factory and were taken on a tour around the factory where we saw how cars were constructed. I found this really interesting and it would have to be one of the highlights of the trip.
I tried many different foods and half the time I didn’t know what I was eating and quite frankly, sometimes I didn’t want to!
The language barrier was really frustrating and our group’s coping mechanism for this was just to laugh. People would approach us and talk in Japanese for ages, and all we could do was laugh. Not at them, but at ourselves. We did find however, that most people spoke at least some English.
Life for disabled people in Japan is different from in New Zealand. One example of this that stood out to me was the lack of inclusive language. It is obvious from this that they are behind New Zealand as far as empowering people with disabilities to take control of their lives and make things happen for themselves.
Many of the Japanese people that I came in contact with made the assumption that people with physical disabilities, like me, must also have an intellectual disability. This was hard for me because back here in New Zealand this assumption is generally not made. This assumption made me feel like I had a lower status to people who were able bodied and I didn’t feel like an equal. An example of people with physical disabilities having a lower status in Japan, was despite being repeatedly told that I was doing tertiary study, I could see from looking at them that they didn’t associate me with having the intellect to be able to handle it. In saying all this, the friendliness of the Japanese people overwhelmed me. They were so thoughtful and considerate towards both me as a person with a physical disability and towards the able bodied people I was travelling with.
Overall I really enjoyed my time in Japan and am grateful for being given this once in a lifetime opportunity. I learnt a huge amount about the Japanese culture and I’m sure this trip will help me not only in my tertiary studies this year, but also in later life. I have gained an understanding of the Japanese culture, and met some great people. I have some amazing memories that will stay with me for a lifetime.
Kerri Bonner
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