Hawaii's shoes-off custom sometimes difficult to bare...

Hawaii's shoes-off custom sometimes difficult to bare

Taking off one's shoes is a custom in many Hawaii homes. Hawaii's shoes-off custom sometimes difficult to bare

Everyone seems to have it wrong. They go through the physical motions of taking off their shoes but lack the inside slippers as is the custom in Japan.

I was recently at a friends home and everyone was upset because I did not take off my shoes. The carpet was filthy, they had five dogs inside that play outdoors all day and they expect me to bare my feet in all that filth and bacteria.

The custom in Japan is to take off your shoes and don a clean pair of slippers, either supplied by the host or you bring your own. When going to the bathroom, you take off your house slippers and don your bathroom slippers, because you do not want to spread bathroom bacteria to the rest of the house.

I do not understand the Hawaii custom of taking off one's shoes in many homes when you are walking in many instances in a dirty environment with other barefooted people who might have bacteria infections such as the contagious athlete's feet.

The shoes-off custom is suppose to be hygienic, and it is not hygienic to have bare sweaty dirty feet walking on floors. Hawaii needs to take a lesson from our Japanese friends before leaving their footwear unattended.

The old expression of "your feet run and your nose smells" should be reversed for Hawaii, "where your nose runs and your feet smell."