When you enter a house or many buildings and rooms, you must remove your shoes. Be sure your feet do not touch the floor outside. I got pretty good at untying my sneakers and then taking one off, placing my foot inside the room, lifting the other foot, removing my sneaker, then putting my second foot in the room. Many places have shoe cubbies. Restaurants, meeting rooms, schools, etc. had these cubbies and you would trade your shoes for their slippers. Here are some shoes in the school cubby. The kids had to put on their street shoes to play in the schoolyard. Notice the jump ropes.
Often, however, we would leave our shoes by the door outside. Here are some middle school boys’ sneakers outside the gym during PE. They were in doing sumo activities at the time.
So, this begs the question, “What about pets?” I got this one answered at my home stay. When the kitty wanted to come in, Keiko-san grabbed her, flipped her over, and toweled her down. Guess it helps if your pet is white.
When going into a tatami room, you just wear socks. No slippers are used in here. Therefore, you don’t ever step on dirty floor with your socks. I am taking my 4th grade students to a Japanese restaurant. I need to remind them to wear clean socks:)
By: Darci B. on November 2, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Dear Mrs. Zupko
I will wear clean socks. I always wear clean socks.
Your student,
Darci
By: Darci B. on November 2, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I’m not commenting on clean feet but how was your trip to Japan?
darci
By: Christopher S. on November 3, 2008 at 10:57 am
Mrs. Zupko,
Its me, Christopher. I’ve seen your blog and I must say, you should write a book, or two. You would make millions, with all the places you’ve been. I enjoyed reading about Japan. I miss you. I’ve done well in home school. My report card said AAAA and one B. Guess I need to work on my math. Hope to see you soon.
By: ryan on November 6, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I have my own blog.
ps.how do you make entries?
By: suezupko on November 6, 2008 at 4:33 pm
When I enter my blog site on the admin page, there are some tabs across the top. The first one is “write” and the second is “manage”. Click on “write”. A spot for a title will open up and you type your title. Then go down and write your paragraph in the space below. Try it tonight and see how you do. Let me know by commenting on my comment:)