Value Village ／ Before you come to Japan
This answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete.
Visitors know shoes come off at the door of a home. What they do not expect is the number of other places — fitting rooms, temple halls, some restaurants, clinics, school gyms — and the small rituals of the threshold that mark someone as knowing what they are doing.
| Place | Shoes | Slippers provided? | Cue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes, ryokan, minshuku | Off at the genkan | Yes (corridor slippers); separate toilet slippers | Step up, shoe cabinet |
| Temple halls, some shrines' inner areas | Off; carry in a bag or leave on racks | Sometimes | Sign, racks of shoes, plastic bags |
| Restaurants with tatami / zashiki seating | Off | Sometimes | Raised floor, shoe lockers with wooden keys |
| Izakaya (some) | Off at entrance | — | Lockers at the door |
| Fitting rooms | Off before stepping onto the raised floor | — | Raised platform, sometimes a mat |
| Clinics, dentists, some pharmacies | Off; slippers provided | Yes | Shoe rack at door |
| Schools, gyms, some museums | Off; indoor shoes or slippers | Yes or bring | Shoe lockers |
| Castles, historic houses | Off; socks recommended | Sometimes plastic bags for your shoes | Signage |
| Offices, shops, stations, most restaurants | Shoes on | — | Level floor |
[Verify] These are conventions; temple and castle rules are posted at each site.
Any raised floor: temples, tatami restaurants, fitting rooms, clinics. Look for the step and the slippers.
Bare feet on tatami and in temples are unwelcome. Carry socks in your bag in summer.
They stay in the toilet. Wearing them out into the corridor is the mistake every guest makes once and remembers.
Step up directly out of the shoes, then turn to face the room and nudge the shoes to point at the door with your hand (or kneel to do it in a formal setting). Never step back down in socks.
The raised floor is indoors. Shoes off on the lower level, step up; staff will ask otherwise. Slip-on shoes make shopping easier for exactly this reason.
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https://www.japan.travel/en/guide/etiquette/
https://www.ryokan.or.jp/english/
https://www.bunka.go.jp/english/
⚠️ Editorial note: the source URLs above were identified by search. Our working environment cannot reach go.jp domains, so the contents have not been checked against the text. Verify every source before publication and record who checked it and when.
What we share here are ideas and everyday practices passed down among people living in Japan, together with general information drawn from public sources. They are not official recommendations, and they are not professional instruction. Practices vary between households and regions.
This is general information. Results vary from person to person and depend on your own conditions and surroundings.
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