Toilet Slippers in Japan

[Niko]

What's with toilet slippers?

I can understand slippers inside the house, but why do the Japanese need to change into a different pair when they use the bathroom?

Even at my school, the students slip into bathroom slippers when going to the toilet. For me, I can't stand the thought of using slippers others have sweated in.

I have found out that toilet slippers are a holdover from the past, when houses did not have modern plumbing facilities.

Before flush toilets became available, toilets were just a hole in the floor that people squatted over, and were not exactly the most hygienic places in the world. Wearing slippers that had been in the toilet might bring flies, maggots or shit into the hourse, so people always changed their footwear.

Although toilets are much cleaner now, they are still considered to be dirty, and the custom of separate house and restroom slippers continues. This shit-phobia is also the reason that so many people dislike having to take a bath in the same room with the toilet.

Doug Jardine
(English Teacher - Japan)