I travelled to Japan for the first time with my mum last December. Considering I’ve travelled multiple times to Japan over the last 10 years, this trip still marked new adventures for me. It was my mum’s first time travelling far in a long while and I’ve leant that solo travel and travelling with elderly differs greatly.

Travel Slow and Have No Expectations

As my mum have difficulty standing and walking for long distances, we brought a wheelchair with us to Japan. However, she found it cumbersome to bring it along each day. So instead of travelling according to our itinerary, I ended up prioritising one activity or location each day instead of multiple stops. This allowed her to take her time and sit to rest whenever she can instead of rushing through the day to get to different locations. I even made sure to get to the train early to ensure that we have plenty of time to get to the correct platform for our train.

Prepare for Medical Emergencies

My mum had an asthma attack on the flight to Japan. Luckily, the staff was very knowledgeable with medical emergencies and provided her with oxygen and arranged for medical staff at the airport to attend to her upon landing. However, we were required to complete a report before the airline would allow us to travel back and we ended up going to a clinic to complete this report. The clinic doctor was not able to complete the report accurately as he did not have access to her medical history so it would have been better if we could have more information prepared beforehand or get medical clearance from her doctor before leaving.

Opt for Wheelchair privilege if available

We had incredible service with their porters at the airports that we were at, including our stopovers. This meant that we could travel through the airport with ease without the additional stress of pushing my mum around. The porters also gave us advice about the shops available and directed us through immigration when we were lost. We did have to register with the airline to request for wheelchair service so we were grateful to the staff who did this for us.

I was very grateful that this trip turned out well in the end. I did worry about our flight home due to her medical emergency but our journey home was smooth and safe. I had to deal with different expectations for this trip and never imagined that we would encounter such different experiences for the first time despite my many travels to Japan in the past. I guess travelling alone is indeed very different from travelling with family, especially when you have older family members during this trip.