Listening without watching — that is what Chihoko Hiratsuka describes as essential for understanding the concept of her tiny movie house in Tokyo.
The theater, Cinema Chupki Tabata, opened last September near JR Tabata Station in Kita Ward as a "universally accessible theater," allowing people with visual disabilities and all others the opportunity to enjoy cinema by providing audio descriptions of scenes with the help of volunteers.
Customers can listen to the recorded descriptions of the characters on screen using headsets placed at each of the roughly 20 seats inside the forest-themed venue.