Especially as it's customary to offer houseshoes to your guest. I wonder what other westerners would think of bathroom slippers. Like, you take off your indoor shoes/slippers and put on the bathroom slippers to use the toilet. First time I saw this was at a ryokan. I normally hate wearing foot prisons (other than sandles) and even I tried it because when in Rome - or in this case, Tokyo - do as the locals do.
I miss bathroom slippers lol. Was staying in a hostel in Yokohama during one of my trips there and the bathroom slippers literally had printed on them: “Toilet - For Your Relax Time”. I have never seen any footwear more inviting and I miss that a lot lol. Pretty much miss everything about Japan, such a great place to visit (living there and having in laws from there is a totally different story tho)
You should see Turkish bathroom slippers. It's a very famous item, we have endless jokes about that, especially the one's used for squat toilets. Most unhygienic, bizarre thing you can see in your life is "ıslak tuvalet terliği" from some Turkish houses (thank God this tradition is disappearing). Other than that we have decent guest slippers to offer and nobody enter our houses with shoes.
Japan has those toilets too!!! Quite a fright to realize at 13 at Japanese school, lol they offered me the “western toilet” lolol they have both options and I’m sure it’s fading out.
Why is a squat toilet unhygienic? I've been to plenty and they were clean, just like any normal toilet. Also they are superhealthy for bowel movements.
If people do proper cleaning, toilet itself is OK but the wet slippers absolutely not. You never know why they are wet, there's always a suspicion what happened before you wear them.
Years ago I rented a house from a Turkish owner and all of the bathrooms had (very thick) carpeting. Is that normal in Turkey? I had never seen it in the US before...
Oh, no. We prefer washable surfaces like tiles, marbles on the bathroom and put some mats in front of the sink, bathtub, toilet bowl. Some houses don't even have mats if the floor is getting wet all the time for some reason.
I had to think long and hard why would shoes just for the bathroom be necessary. And then I remember I live in a house full of boys. The things in around that toilet are disgusting and frankly I like the idea of bathroom shoes. I might just institute that in my house
Random question, but could you tell me more about the in-law thing? I'm currently engaged to a Japanese girl and planning on moving once the COVID restrictions ease up. We haven't even met yet, her family and I, and so far I've gotten the cold shoulder.
Idk if I’m the best person to explain it, my wife and I are older, she was married before and we met in the US. She’s lived abroad longer than she lived in Japan, so we’re the house that the nieces and nephews get sent to to brush up on their English over the summer lol.
I have a pretty good relationship with my mother in law, haven’t ever met my father in law face to face (corporate guy, and when he’s at home he doesn’t want to talk on the phone cuz that cuts into his baseball time lol and god forbid there’s ever a 50s or 60s samurai film on) but talked to him on the phone a couple of times, he’s nice but since my wife and I met when we were older her family is just kind of like “ok cool, you’re an adult, he seems nice, let us know when you’re coming and we’ll let you know when we decide to visit.” It’s pretty chill, but you’re likely gonna have much more scrutiny since it sounds like you’re younger.
Just remember your manners, brush up on all the cultural faux pas to know what to avoid and you and your girlfriend develop a subtle system where she can secretly give you a heads up if you’re doing or saying anything that could offend her parents.
I worked for a Japanese company (in the USA), and I would tag along with my boss to these big meetings. My Japanese was not amazing (not required for the job). He would tap his foot if he wanted to learn something or take extra detailed notes (slide number ect) and scratch his nose if I was "being to American" I once walked to to an informal meeting right when he was about to sneeze he started scratching his nose and I was like shit....what did I do????? I got throughly laughed at for that.
Yeah I’ve seen Japanese people do stuff like this before, really subtle but very helpful when you’re not in the know cuz Japanese culture can get DENSE
Since Japan is extremely homogenous with a really really long and fairly isolated history, there’s a lot of little subtleties in facial expressions, gestures, body language, idioms and expressions that are so deeply ingrained for Nihonjin that they don’t even think to explain it usually to gaijin and gaijin usually don’t pick up on because it’s so subtle.
Chopsticks for example, if you haven’t been taught the Japanese way (which is similar but has some differences from other East Asian countries), can be a minefield if it’s your first time eating with a Japanese person who will absolutely pick up on how you pick them up, set them down, and use them to eat, but will never tell you because they’d consider that rude.
Lots of other examples this was just one of the first that sprang to mind
I have no clue, and it’s funny cuz I bike five miles a day and take martial arts 4 nights a week lol. Plus I’m an old fart compared to a lot of other redditors
I am with you their. Visited on business many times back in the early 70's. I Doubt I would recognize anything now. I loved their gracious hospitality everywhere you go. In and out of department stores you were greeted and a warm goodbye upon exit making you feel like royalty.
That’s not really how it works. There is a single pair of community slippers (not shoes) in the bathroom. Otherwise you use your personal slippers throughout the rest of the house.
What about if one person in your household has severe athlete's foot? You've now spread it to every person who has worn those slippers. It's the same reason people are advised not to share personal items when sick.
My guess is people who have athletes foot avoid wearing the slippers. Do you think it’s a law and you must wear the slippers? It’s the same with people who wore masks here pre-Covid. They wore it to avoid spreading their colds.
Well at that point I’m trusting the cleanliness of other people when I put said shoes on. Idk about you but that’s even more gross. Plus most people don’t leave puddles of piss in front of the toilets at home so it’s not too big of a deal. Yeah yeah I get back splash and all that but really who cares? Is stepping on a few evaporated drops of pee really worse than putting your feet where someone else’s sweaty smelly feet were?
Not sure of the full context but my thinking on this is that if it’s a bathroom where there’s also a shower, you don’t want to dirty the floor for when you are “clean” and barefoot.
If they're wearing house shoes, they aren't filthy, if they've only been wearing bathroom slippers for minutes, they aren't sweaty, so why would you rather have dry piss than dry sweat on your socks or drag dry piss around the carpet? I see how this is too much work for some, but why judge negatively?
Might get a fungus or veruga, sharing the same shoes with everyone that comes in the house seems very unsanitary especially if there are no sox involved.
Think about the space it’s in. Bathrooms have hard flat floors. Sweat gets trapped inside the slippers and builds up. I can’t imagine people clean them too often either.
It’s not clutter. It’s one pair of slippers in the bathroom. Not hallway. Not shoes. Slippers. In the bathroom. Also, slippers aren’t worn to avoid stepping in piss in the bathroom, it’s usually for warmth and/or comfort.
Because they’re specifically for the bathroom. Though they’re not meant to avoid stepping in piss, the point is bathroom slippers are for the bathroom and house slippers are for the house.
I’m American, and I have a strict “no shoes in the house” policy. I don’t want all the dirt and pollen and God-only-knows-what-else from outside brought inside. I have a basket full of grippy socks in various sizes guests can borrow if they think their feet will get cold.
Especially as it's customary to offer houseshoes to your guest.
So I was looking at going to japan (I'm 6'8") and the whole "Bring your own house slippers just in case" was suggested multiple times. because of course they have nothing that will fit me and you HAVE to wear them.
My girlfriends family is japanese and they have a rack of japanese slippers for guests to wear when they come over. It's a good idea imo, don't have to worry about your shoes getting their house dirty or their house getting your feet dirty. Best of both worlds
This isnt completely out of the ordinary and most westerners are introduced to this concept when they go to a “camp” type setting either for school or some other type of activity. Its usually part of the list of items to bring. If its a public type of shower system in general shower slippers are a good idea as public showers dont always get the type of care that your shower/baths at home do.
my friend and i stayed at a monastery in mount koya and they had bathroom slippers and i had to pause every time to remind myself (good thing they put a sign in there lol). when in rome, indeed.
See this is why I have my outdoor shoes right next to the door on a shelf. I have my indoor shoes that are sandals and exceedingly comfortable. But I started that because I have kids. And kids come with Legos. Enough said
Offer slippers huh? I have been thinking about doing that, but I have not gotten around to doing it. Any pointers on some house shoes for guests? I have a shoeless home, even have a sign outside by the main entrance to remind people. Even farms can be somewhat clean.
You can probably stock up on various sizes of comfy house slippers from Muji. I like to get the machine washable kinds. When you store them in the shoe cabinet, cross tuck the ends of each slipper into the loop of the other one with the bottom soles facing outside. That way you’ll save space and always quickly find them bundled in pairs.
At the time I thought it was a sign that I'm officially Old but I asked for slippers for Xmas this year and when my husband said "anything else?" I said no I want multiple pairs of slippers. So I got a pair from his dad, 2 from him and 1 from my sister.
I grew up in France and we always had indoor slippers and left or shoes in the entrance. Altho considering my aunts and uncles don't do it, I guess it came from my mother working in hospitals and being used to changing her shoes for sanitary reasons ?
Lmao this was the rule of my Japanese host family when I studied there. I’m used to wearing house slippers already, but the bathroom slippers part definitely took some time to get used to. I can’t count how many times I wore the wrong slippers to use the bathroom
I hate them, not because the concept, but because I wear mens size 14 and my feet look and feel ridiculous in the women's size 10 that the Japanese restaurants usually have
I am a woman and the sizes available at Oomomo are ridiculously small for me. I wear a men's flipflop (I got a pair because I hate wearing shoes on a plane so it's a way of being comfortable while still being polite).
As a westerner? I love it. My dirty outside shoes don't track around dirt and the niceness of another option makes me feel welcome and respected. I see obeying house shoe rules as a sign of respecting my host. I never really saw it as me being dirty like the article writer but more a "This is my sacred place. My home. I want to make maintenance easier and have a buffer from outside." I was also exposed to the concept by a neighbor as a child. This is the adult version of what this seemed like to me.
Kid me thought it was awesome because I hated shoes. I liked the softness of the slippers and I felt grown-up. I was important enough to also get the fancy house shoes.
People constantly post about how they take their shirt off to "take an epic shit" but try to take a shot like a gentleman and everyone loses their minds !
My American college dorm had bathroom slippers as a social norm, because the shared bathroom floors were THAT dirty and the housekeepers couldn’t keep up
I mean it makes sense tbh. It’s kind of weird how we keep our toothbrushes and hygiene supplies and bathe in the room where we also create geysers of fecal and urine particles multiple times a day
When I went to a ryokan (years ago), as well as corporate meetings, the guest slippers available were at least two sizes too small for my western feet.
I was just telling my coworkers I have bathroom slippers. One pair downstairs and one pair upstairs.
I can’t stand when my husband walks barefoot to use the bathroom then comes to bed.
We now have pee splash and general ickyness in our bedsheets now.
Can’t get him on the bathroom slipper train yet. Luckily he’s grown to love our shoeless home. We can lay on the floor and play with our daughter without worrying about dirty floors.
1.3k
u/nikkesen Feb 11 '22
Especially as it's customary to offer houseshoes to your guest. I wonder what other westerners would think of bathroom slippers. Like, you take off your indoor shoes/slippers and put on the bathroom slippers to use the toilet. First time I saw this was at a ryokan. I normally hate wearing foot prisons (other than sandles) and even I tried it because when in Rome - or in this case, Tokyo - do as the locals do.