Our borrowed Lonely Planet guidebook for Japan and websites such as www.japan-guide.com/e/e2001.html devote several paragraphs to “slipper etiquette”. The when, where and how to wear the correct choice of slippers inside and outside a traditional hotel, restaurants, and homes in Japan needs some getting used to!
Our hotel in Tokyo supplied no less than 4 different types of slippers to be worn inside or outside, in the room or outside, and even a special pair for emergency use only. There were many, many signs at the front door providing instructions on where and how to remove outdoor footwear and store those outdoor shoes in a special room containing ~200 keyed shoe lockers for storage of the outdoor shoes when going in, and the indoor slippers when going out. Bizarrely, there was but one small bench seating just one person at the entrance where all footwear was to be swapped. We think that we figured it all out, but some guests clearly couldn’t be bothered and simply went barefoot everywhere inside. (No clue if they bothered with the toilet slippers when in their rooms; we have to confess that we didn’t!)
Nobody wants to be caught in an emergency, but we almost wish that there had been one so that we could have seen what the “evacuation slippers” looked like. Were they waterproof or fireproof? Could they have been worn outside, or only as far as the front door, whereupon a change to the outdoor slippers or to one’s locked up outdoor footwear would have been required? The fight for the one seat in the footwear changing area would have been mayhem!
See our slipper etiquette images on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/sets/72177720330251028
All joking aside, Japan’s “slipper etiquette” is just one of many of the nation’s cultural traditions that make Japan such a fascinating place to visit. If we had time (and actually understood exactly how things work) we could probably write more posts about rules fir the onsen baths, samurai traditions, and even train and subway etiquette. Those posts will have to wait until our next trip. Just make sure that you’ve seen all of our posts from this trip to Japan:
List
Visiting Osaka
Tokyo Grand Sumo Tournament – Sept. 22, 2025
