Your Suitcase Just Jammed in a Tokyo Ticket Gate. There Was One Gate You Should Have Used.

Why this phrase

Day one, straight off the Narita or Haneda train, and the standard ticket gate is narrower than your bag. Almost every Japanese station has one 幅広改札, a wide gate. It is nearly always the one beside the staffed window, marked with a wheelchair icon that visitors read as 'not for me'. It is for you: operators state plainly that it is for wheelchair users AND for passengers with large luggage. The rescue line is what you say to the staff member sitting right there: 「ここ、通れますか？」. ACCURACY GUARD from the Japanese verifier: say wheelchair icon only, there is no suitcase icon on the gate; and include a beat of courtesy, let a wheelchair or a pram go first, so this does not read as telling tourists to occupy an accessibility lane. SCOPE GUARD: one gate, one phrase. Do not branch into fare adjustment or IC cards.