I'm not usually one to care about immersion, but this is a serious problem.

[Niwashi]

Based on Japan =/= is Japan.

Kugane culture is not likely to be exactly like Japanese culture and does not have to be.

The no shoes on tatami rule isn't just a matter of culture. Any place that uses tatami mats for flooring would need to share that particular rule, since hard shoes would destroy tatami mats pretty quickly. If Kugane is similar enough to Japan to have adopted the use of tatami mats, then it's similar enough that it would share Japan's rule about no hard shoes indoors.

simply take off your foot gear everytime you go in and tell yourself the sandals you have on are your house slippers.

That would work if the default sandals actually looked like slippers. But they appear to be as hard soled as any other shoes. Does the game have any soft slipper-like shoes? I can't think of any off-hand, but if so, that would be a good choice for indoor wear.



But in any case, it's still ridiculous that we can't go barefoot elsewhere anyway.