Before retiring, guests often walk around the grounds in their robes and geta--old woodenshoes that go clack-clack through the quiet streets where ryokan are usually located.
Kissa Sakaiki, located in the Shinjuku district, pays homage to the past by requiring visitors to remove their shoes upon entrance and displaying a wooden chest filled with a vast collection of vintage matchbooks from old jazz kissa along the back wall.
Competing professionally with an obsolete or even ordinary system is as ill-advised as playing professional basketball in the canvas shoes that were popular in the 1950s and 1960s, or competing in the PGA golf championship with wooden drivers.