If you peeked into my genkan, you might think a dozen people lived in my house.

The genkan is the entryway, recessed a bit, where you remove your shoes before stepping up into the house. It’s a relic from farming days when shoes and boots were muddy and keeping them at the door kept the house clean. These days, Japanese dwellings still have a genkan and a shoe closet where the entire shoe wardrobe is stored.

But my shoe closet is empty and my shoes are all over the genkan. I’ll blame it on the changing seasons; it’s warm one day, cold the next. I’ve worn just about all of my shoes over the past week. Now they are spread all over the genkan, crowding the margin between outside and inside.

Are they anxious to leave or to come in? Posted by kuri at October 30, 2001 10:10 AM