Holy shit. Went to a Japanese restaurant. In Japan. Despite close to a decade of martial arts training and dojo etiquette, I stuffed up and placed ONE foot on the tatami surface while wearing shoes for 2 seconds. The other patrons gasped.
My sensei would yell at everyone who ever did it.
I cannot overestimate how much you need to prepare for being in public.
To be fair, Japan has designed a whole culture around the exact fear that you and OP described (also, don’t do that. Shoes don’t go beyond the shoe area at the entrance.)
Holy shit. Went to a Japanese restaurant. In Japan. Despite close to a decade of martial arts training and dojo etiquette, I stuffed up and placed ONE foot on the tatami surface while wearing shoes for 2 seconds. The other patrons gasped.
My sensei would yell at everyone who ever did it.
I cannot overestimate how much you need to prepare for being in public.
To be fair, Japan has designed a whole culture around the exact fear that you and OP described (also, don’t do that. Shoes don’t go beyond the shoe area at the entrance.)
I know it’s autocorrect but I got a giggle out of ‘marital arts’
I manual-uncorrected it. Even though I’ve been practising marital arts even longer.