Hello, I am Yoshi from NILS Japnaese language school.
We have four enrollments in a year: Januray, April, July, and October. We pick up new students at the Fukuoka Airprot and take them to NILS dormitories, Gakusei-kaikan, and Leo-Palace apartments. In their countries, they usually don’t take off their shoes even at home, so they customarily try to get into rooms without taking off their shoes here in Japan. It seems that they need some days to get used it.
Why should you take off your shoes in a Japanese home?
Customarily, Japanese sit directly on tatami-mat floors and sleep on them as well, with futon mattressses. Therefore, people take their shoes off to keep the floors clean. And of course people feel more relaxed with them.
Learning different customs is also a very good experience. When you are invited to a Japanese home here in Japan, please don’t forget to take off your shoes!!

March 26th News, from NILS Japanese language school.