Walking The Tokaido Road between Kyoto and Tokyo
Tony walking the Tokaido Road in Japan - photo credit Tony R. Vega
Ep 154 w/ Tony R. Vega - Walking The Tokaido Road between Kyoto and Tokyo as a Visually Impaired Person
My 154th guest episode on the Winging It Travel Podcast is with Tony R. Vega, a legally blind creator with impaired vision. I was stoked when he asked me to come on the podcast to talk about his journey.
Tony explains his level of blindness to give us an idea of what he can and can not see. This is crucial to Tony’s life and his travel adventures in Hawaii, specifically Japan.
One of the most extraordinary journeys he has undertaken is the 500km Tokaido Road between Kyoto and Tokyo, a stunning achievement.
Tony focuses a lot of his content on Japan, and he travels there frequently, so he has plenty of tips for people traveling to Japan and awesome stories to share from his travels there.
He is based out of Hawaii and regularly vlogs from his daily life there, too.
It was a fascinating chat and an inspirational one, too, as Tony proved to all of us that even a setback like his eyesight wouldn’t stop him from traveling or experiencing some of life’s pleasures when traveling.
Check out the episode, and let’s dive into some topics.
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Checking out Kinkaku-ji in Japan
Can you imagine being visually impaired?
What is the one thing we take for granted daily?
Our eyesight has to be up there with the prime candidates.
Have you ever considered for one moment what it would be like to not see anything or anything fully like Tony?
I imagine people who rely on glasses can grasp this as they can experience it when they take their glasses off, but I am blessed with decent eyesight.
Tony explains to us about using his white cane when travelling. It is there to warn people that he is partially blind and that he may not see you coming by on a bike or even by walking.
This is crucial for Tony, not only when traveling but also in daily life. He is inspirational to me in how he uses this as a tool for life, and it won’t stop him from seeing the world.
Now is the time to review your excuses.
We talk about the stuff he can see, like bigger objects and shadows, but his saving grace is that he isn’t fully blind, so he still has the ability to see everything he wants in this amazing world.
We touch on the subject of funding for the treatment of people who are visually impaired and how it is never at the top of medical professionals. We always hear stories of miracle cures for people who are blind to regain their sight, but I am not sure if they are one-offs.
How is it not top of the agenda? We can all agree on how key it is for all of us to have our eyesight. This is one thing we would cherish the most if we lost it. This agenda needs to be pushed further.
Hopefully, a doctor somewhere has this at the top of their list.
With the advancement of medicine in rapid fire, I am pretty sure there will be a treatment in the future for Tony to get his full eyesight back—and what a sight that would be!
Tony’s experience of meeting locals on his Tokaido Road walk
Japan is known for its super-efficient transport network around the country and within the cities themselves.
When someone like Tony rocks up to a local farmer on a walk, what would their reaction be?
For one, they would be spooked by Tony’s white cane and the fact he is walking. Tony can speak fluent Japanese so he can quickly say what is going on but then it comes to the next phase of questioning.
Why are you walking?
The Japanese farmer who saw Tony was so bewildered that he wanted to walk this road instead of taking the train. Why spend two to three hours walking when you can spend a few minutes on the train?
Is this what happens when your country becomes dependent and forward-thinking about transport?
Does walking become obsolete?
This story did make me chuckle, as this local farmer has got to process what Tony is saying. Effectively, he is saying he is partially blind, he is lost, and he is walking the 500km Tokaido Road.
I can imagine shock or disbelief as the first reaction.
Imagine if you couldn’t explain all of this in Japanese. Where would you even start?
In the episode, Tony has plenty of these stories as he talks about his journey in Japan and the random people he encounters.
This is why I love stories and challenges like this: You never know who might pop up along the way.
How does Hawaii see tourists and overtourism?
Tony has a YouTube channel dedicated to his travels and life, which you can watch here.
I wanted to ask Tony about the locals in Hawaii and how they view tourists visiting.
It is a problem.
Hawaii is a tiny but popular destination within the USA, but the number of tourists can be overwhelming when you add international travellers to the mix.
so much so that the locals stick to their own beaches and areas away from the tourists in the hope they won’t find them.
One example is Lanikai Beach, which I visited in 2014.
The other side of the island from Waikiki is predominantly for locals, but as I just said, I visited, so you can go there.
You must catch a bus, which takes a while, or get an Uber.
The views are stunning, the beach is squeaky, and the water is warm. It really is paradise, and it is nowhere near as busy as Waikiki.
If I were to go back, I would rent a car and see more of Oahu, especially the other parts of the island.
I did visit the Big Island and Maui, but I would also love to see the other islands.
Tony reiterated what most locals say: be respectful, spend time in the local economy, and stay away from the local beaches if you can, as they are for locals.
This may sound passive-aggressive, but the locals need respite from the crowds, so I don’t blame them.
Tony R. Vega on the road - photo credit Tony R. Vega
Check out my latest YouTube episode hiking the Garibaldi Lake Trail.
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Who is Tony R. Vega and what is the mission of Japan Kyo?
In November of 2016 Tony R. Vega started JapanKyo after noticing a vast and endless stream of interesting news and content coming out of Japan that was getting little to no coverage by English-language media. Using his expertise in the Japanese language, he began to report on these stories, focusing on the more outlandish content he came across. Thanks to his ability to find interesting content in Japanese-language media and accurately translate it into English before other media outlets, Tony Vega was able to turn Japankyo into a trusted source for odd and interesting news from Japan within just a few months.
Since its founding numerous stories broken by JapanKyo have spread around the world and been translated in many different languages. These stories have been cited by and reported on by a long list of major media outlets, including The Sun, NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Thump, Engadget, SoraNews24 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), Mandatory, Metro, Inquirer.net, Boing Boing, Newsweek, and many more. Japankyo articles have also been appearing in Wasabi magazine since the start of the publication in January of 2018 until it stopped publishing in 2020.
On November 1, 2018, JapanKyo expanded into the world of podcasting when it launched Japan Station. Hosted and produced by JapanKyo founder Tony R. Vega, Japan Station is released monthly. In each episode Tony R. Vega has a guest on to talk about Japan-related topics. To see a full list of episodes visit www.japanstationpodcast.com.
January of 2020 saw the launch of JapanKyo.com’s second podcast: Ichimon Japan: A Podcast About Japan and the Japanese Language. On this show Tony R. Vega and his co-host Ryan pose questions about Japan and the Japanese language and do their best to answer these sometimes unanswerable questions.
Tony R. Vega also produced a third Japan-focused podcast. Titled Japanese Plus Alpha, this show focuses exclusively on interesting quirks of the Japanese language. While it is no longer being produced, all the episodes are available for Patreon supporters contributing $3 a month or more..
In October of 2021, Tony R. Vega, along with Kyle Broyles of the Tokyo Splosion podcast and Hard Officers YouTube channel launched the YouTube channel JapanKyo Docs. Together they produced a series of short documentaries focusing on people in Japan doing interesting and unique things.
In September of 2023 Tony R. Vega embarked on a walk from Kyoto to Tokyo that spanned 29 days and roughly 500 km. Dubbed the Tokaido Challenge, Tony documented the journey in real time via videos and posts he released to his personal X/Twitter account. The goal of the Tokaido Challenge was to create captivating content that would both serve entertain and raise awareness of people with visual impairments (Tony Dot Vega is legally blind).
Social Media
To stay up to date with all Japan-related developments, please follow on Facebook and Twitter. You can also follow Tony R. Vega on Twitter @TheVegaTony.
Contact
Do you have a question or comment? Do you have an idea for a story? Are you interested in contributing to JapanKyo? If so, then send an email to mail@japankyo.com.
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