Ultra Japan is an electronic dance music festival that is held in Tokyo Japan. The 2016 edition is it’s 3rd consecutive year that the festival has taken place and it is a 3-day weekend event that takes place in September at Tokyo Odaiba Ultra Park. About 120,000 attended the 2016 festival. This festival is part of Ultra Music Festival’s worldwide presence which has now expanded to 20 countries. I really enjoy music festivals and wanted to try attend one in a different continent. We only went to the first 2 days of the festival and got to see DJ Snake, Deadmau5, Galantis, Hardwell and many more.
poster
Getting There
Surprisingly, Ultra Japan’s festival hours are from 11 am to 9 pm. All my previous experiences have been that the festivals usually start a couple hours later and end a couple hours later too. We don’t need to be there right at 11 when it opens because the first couple hours have lesser known dj’s performing but our ideal time to arrive would be between 1 and 2 pm. So from our hotel we hopped on the train which I thought was quite accessible. We noticed lots of other passengers were also heading to Ultra Japan and despite the language barrier, we made friends fast. The train stop we needed to get to was called Odaiba-Kaihinkoen Station which was about a 10 minute walk/stroll to Tokyo Odaiba Ultra Park.
taking train to Odaiba-Kaihinkoen Station
Diver City Tokyo Plaza
Before we head to Ultra Japan, we wanted to check out the mall that is directly beside the festival. We ate our lunch here because we figured it will be cheaper buying food here than at the festival. We even filled up our water bottles here so that we can have them for later. This mall has a huge fancy private accessible bathroom and it’s own security guard. There were so many festival attendees using this clean large bathroom.
filling up at the mall before we head to Ultra Japan
What was really cool, was the giant robot Gundam statue outside the mall at one of the entrances. It is about 60 feet tall and during certain times throughout the day, it emits light, the head moves, the chest opens and spews mist. There is also some background music. We thought this was amazing and was glad it was free to see.
Gundam robot outside mall
Tokyo Odaiba Ultra Park
The venue was quite accessible and had a lot of green space to maneuver around and was easy to check out the 2 main stages. What was surprising was that there were no free water refill stations. Music Festivals usually have this because drinking lots of water is a good idea when attendees are there dancing and being subjected to the hot weather since this is an outdoor event. Ultra Japan also allowed unlimited re-entries which is uncommon to other festivals I have been to. This was perfect because we would go to Diver City Tokyo Plaza to refill our water bottles and to eat there too.
Ultra Japan with friends
unlimited re-entries at this festival
Bathrooms and Stages
We did see one big wheelchair accessible bathroom at Ultra Japan. It was big enough for my wheelchair to be turned around completely and have my companion with me. There was actually light in the bathroom and was cleaner than most accessible porta potties I been to. We did not see any raised platforms viewing areas for wheelchairs but they did have a special section just for women. That section was not very crowded and the staff let me use that area to escape the crowds.
accessible spacious bathroom with a light
The Vibe
We really thought that everyone was quite friendly. Even with the language barrier, people definitely tried to make us feel welcome. We didn’t really encounter any real drunks and there wasn’t anyone on drugs. It was different than other festivals we have been to, but it was a pleasant difference. Everyone was here to just enjoy the music.
fun times
Tokyo Odaiba Ultra Park was pretty accessible for wheelchair users. They may not have a separate viewing platform for wheelchairs but the friendly staff will do their best in assuring that the experience will be a great one. I am happy that they allow unlimited re-entries since that allows rest periods and that everyone attending the festival were just there for the music. I hope to return to Ultra Japan really soon.
close up of main stage
