These Boots Were Made for Walking [Outside]

Though it's become more common in America to take off one's shoes upon entering a home, it's still something of a foreign concept and an offense isn't particularly troublesome.  One of the largest adjustments coming to Japan for many exchange students is definitely that shoes are worn outside and only outside.  They are kept by the door, not in one's room--never in one's room.

And it's not just at home.  Many schools have shoe lockers where students change into slippers while in the school buildings.  Some businesses share this practice as well.  I'm not sure about shrines, as I haven't experienced it at one, but temples as well, if one aims to enter the buildings themselves.

Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto required visitors to remove their shoes if they wanted to enter the main building.  When I visited Asuka temple in Nara, shoes were left by the door.  Most recently, at Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei, I observed the removing and replacing of shoes, almost as natural as breathing.

And the requirement to remove them doesn't seem to hinder the choice of shoe at all.  Women will show up with lace-up or otherwise complicated closure shoes but such doesn't phase them.  They take a seat and remove them to enter, perhaps for less total time than it might take to remove and replace the shoes.

It's fascinating.  Maybe Americans just don't have the patience or appreciation for taking off their shoes in a clean manner to keep their homes, schools, jobs and places of worship clean.