Explore everyday life in Japan

Yellow Walking Tiles

In cities throughout Japan, most sidewalks have a line of hard, yellow, concrete tiles running through the middle of them. These tiles are textured and have two designs, one that is made of round, protruding bumps, and another that is made of protruding dashes.

Their purpose is to help the visually impaired safely navigate themselves through cities. The protruding bumps signal to walkers that they have come upon a curb, an intersection, or a staircase, and the protruding dashes signal to walkers that they may continue forward without worry.

Image Credits: All images in this post are original.

This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting daily updates about life in Japan, please consider following me. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.

If you missed my last post, you can find it here: driving mirrors.

This Is Japan

Explore everyday life in Japan

In cities throughout Japan, most sidewalks have a line of hard, yellow, concrete tiles running through the middle of them. These tiles are textured and have two designs, one that is made of round, protruding bumps, and another that is made of protruding dashes.

Their purpose is to help the visually impaired safely navigate themselves through cities. The protruding bumps signal to walkers that they have come upon a curb, an intersection, or a staircase, and the protruding dashes signal to walkers that they may continue forward without worry.