diff --git a/bindings/python/src/tokenizer.rs b/bindings/python/src/tokenizer.rs
index d2e61ee1c..372bb7755 100644
--- a/bindings/python/src/tokenizer.rs
+++ b/bindings/python/src/tokenizer.rs
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 use std::collections::{hash_map::DefaultHasher, HashMap};
 use std::hash::{Hash, Hasher};
 
-use numpy::PyArray1;
+use numpy::{npyffi, PyArray1};
 use pyo3::class::basic::CompareOp;
 use pyo3::exceptions;
 use pyo3::prelude::*;
 use pyo3::types::*;
+use pyo3::AsPyPointer;
 use tk::models::bpe::BPE;
 use tk::tokenizer::{
     Model, PaddingDirection, PaddingParams, PaddingStrategy, PostProcessor, TokenizerImpl,
@@ -258,8 +259,24 @@ impl<'s> From<TextInputSequence<'s>> for tk::InputSequence<'s> {
 struct PyArrayUnicode(Vec<String>);
 impl FromPyObject<'_> for PyArrayUnicode {
     fn extract(ob: &PyAny) -> PyResult<Self> {
-        let array = ob.downcast::<PyArray1<u8>>()?;
-        let arr = array.as_array_ptr();
+        if unsafe { npyffi::PyArray_Check(ob.py(), ob.as_ptr()) } == 0 {
+            return Err(exceptions::PyTypeError::new_err("Expected an np.array"));
+        }
+        let arr = ob.as_ptr() as *mut npyffi::PyArrayObject;
+        if unsafe { (*arr).nd } != 1 {
+            return Err(exceptions::PyTypeError::new_err(
+                "Expected a 1 dimensional np.array",
+            ));
+        }
+        if unsafe { (*arr).flags }
+            & (npyffi::NPY_ARRAY_C_CONTIGUOUS | npyffi::NPY_ARRAY_F_CONTIGUOUS)
+            == 0
+        {
+            return Err(exceptions::PyTypeError::new_err(
+                "Expected a contiguous np.array",
+            ));
+        }
+        let n_elem = unsafe { *(*arr).dimensions } as usize;
         let (type_num, elsize, alignment, data) = unsafe {
             let desc = (*arr).descr;
             (
@@ -269,10 +286,8 @@ impl FromPyObject<'_> for PyArrayUnicode {
                 (*arr).data,
             )
         };
-        let n_elem = array.shape()[0];
 
-        // type_num == 19 => Unicode
-        if type_num != 19 {
+        if type_num != npyffi::types::NPY_TYPES::NPY_UNICODE as i32 {
             return Err(exceptions::PyTypeError::new_err(
                 "Expected a np.array[dtype='U']",
             ));
@@ -289,8 +304,7 @@ impl FromPyObject<'_> for PyArrayUnicode {
                         bytes.as_ptr() as *const _,
                         elsize as isize / alignment as isize,
                     );
-                    let gil = Python::acquire_gil();
-                    let py = gil.python();
+                    let py = ob.py();
                     let obj = PyObject::from_owned_ptr(py, unicode);
                     let s = obj.cast_as::<PyString>(py)?;
                     Ok(s.to_string_lossy().trim_matches(char::from(0)).to_owned())
@@ -310,32 +324,18 @@ impl From<PyArrayUnicode> for tk::InputSequence<'_> {
 struct PyArrayStr(Vec<String>);
 impl FromPyObject<'_> for PyArrayStr {
     fn extract(ob: &PyAny) -> PyResult<Self> {
-        let array = ob.downcast::<PyArray1<u8>>()?;
-        let arr = array.as_array_ptr();
-        let (type_num, data) = unsafe { ((*(*arr).descr).type_num, (*arr).data) };
-        let n_elem = array.shape()[0];
-
-        if type_num != 17 {
-            return Err(exceptions::PyTypeError::new_err(
-                "Expected a np.array[dtype='O']",
-            ));
-        }
-
-        unsafe {
-            let objects = std::slice::from_raw_parts(data as *const PyObject, n_elem);
-
-            let seq = objects
-                .iter()
-                .map(|obj| {
-                    let gil = Python::acquire_gil();
-                    let py = gil.python();
-                    let s = obj.cast_as::<PyString>(py)?;
-                    Ok(s.to_string_lossy().into_owned())
-                })
-                .collect::<PyResult<Vec<_>>>()?;
+        let array = ob.downcast::<PyArray1<PyObject>>()?;
+        let seq = array
+            .readonly()
+            .as_array()
+            .iter()
+            .map(|obj| {
+                let s = obj.cast_as::<PyString>(ob.py())?;
+                Ok(s.to_string_lossy().into_owned())
+            })
+            .collect::<PyResult<Vec<_>>>()?;
 
-            Ok(Self(seq))
-        }
+        Ok(Self(seq))
     }
 }
 impl From<PyArrayStr> for tk::InputSequence<'_> {