We dip our feet into a Japanese onsen…inside footbath boots

Whether you’re gaming, studying, or working from home, these ashiyu boots let you take the footbath with you wherever you go!

Just the other week, we heard about a new pair of boots that promised to give us all the toasty warmth of a Japanese hot spring bath for our feet. And these weren’t just designed to make it feel as if we had our feet in water — they actually do cover the feet in water, so this was one product we knew we had to try.

▼ The “Ashiyu Boots” (“Footbath Boots”) retail for 9,790 yen (US$86.40).

While footbaths are great for keeping you warm, they usually require you to stay seated in one place, which means you can’t usually multitask and tick things like household chores off your to-do list while having a soak.

However, because these boots act like snug little portable footbaths, allowing you to take the hot water with you wherever you go, we decided to really put them to the test by enjoying a regular evening in them.

▼ Each pair of boots comes with a pack of 30 bicarb tablets, because a true ashiyu contains salts and minerals to help soothe tired muscles.

The first thing we noticed about the boots was their super light and soft texture. Being made from waterproof wetsuit material, we’d thought these would be hard to slip on and off, so we sized up when we ordered them but we now realised this was a mistake, as there was plenty of room to move in them.

▼ However, they were still nice and cosy, even without any water in them.

The rubber wetsuit material is actually on the inside of the boot, and the soles have a nice non-slip layer for stability.

The boots were excellent quality, so we had high hopes that this would turn out to be a very nice way to enjoy a cosy night in. Taking a quick look at the included instructions, we grabbed one of the bicarb tabs from the pack…

▼ …and popped it into a litre (33.8 ounces) of hot water.

It’s recommended to use water that’s on the slightly hot side, at around 43-45 degrees Celsius (109-113 degrees Fahrenheit), so it doesn’t cool down too much when you put your feet into the boots.

▼ Our water was a piping hot 45 degrees Celsius.

Once the bicarb tab has completely dissolved in the water, you simply pour half the liquid into one boot, half the liquid into the other, and slide your feet into the boots.

▼ It felt super hot at first, but we soon got used to it. Hot baths in Japan are usually around 43-45 degrees Celsius, after all.

It was certainly a strange experience to have our feet soaking in hot water despite not being able to see any hot water, and things felt even stranger when we stood up and walked around in them. It felt as if we were breaking some big taboo — as if we were doing something naughty in a place where we shouldn’t — but again, we soon got used to it.

▼ In fact, after a few minutes, things went from strange to awesome, as the muscles in our legs began to relax as if we were having a gentle leg-and-foot massage.

With the relaxed, warming sensation spreading from our toes to the rest of the body, we decided to sit down and really relax, by playing a game of Far Cry 6 — our ultimate idea of relaxation.

However, after a while, the heated battle against armed forces caused us to break out into a slight sweat, and the fact that we were fighting in a humid tropical setting amped up the heat even further.

▼ If you want to get warm quick in winter, you’ll want to wear these boots while gaming.

We were super impressed with the way these boots kept our tootsies nice and warm, especially when sitting in one place for a while. Because we’d sized up, though, and there was only half a litre of water in each boot, our footbaths cooled down to around 35 degrees Celsius after around 15 minutes.

However, according to the makers of the boots, that’s where the magic of the bicarb steps in. Hot springs that contain bicarbonate, such as Nagayu Onsen in Oita Prefecture, are able to warm the body even at relatively low temperatures.

So even though the temperature had cooled somewhat, we still kept the boots on, and after leaving the couch and our battle in Far Cry 6, we decided to do some housework in them.

The water inside each boot moves every time you take a step, which brought back childhood memories of sloshing about in rainboots filled with water after jumping in puddles.

▼ Walking in these is incredibly fun, and a little mind-bending, as you feel like you’re kicking water with every step!

The one thing we do recommend is not sizing up in these boots, because the extra room made us feel as if our feet were sliding around in them. The boots themselves weren’t sliding, due to the grip on the soles, so we were safe to walk in them, but we found ourselves taking slow, heavy steps around the house like a blue-booted Godzilla.

We attempted to vacuum but that proved to be difficult — no wonder we never see Godzilla with a vacuum cleaner — so we washed some dishes and made a pot of rice instead. It felt odd to be working in the kitchen with our feet in puddles of water, but it was an odd that we liked and could definitely get used to.

After about an hour of wearing them, we decided it was time for us to swap our Godzilla feet for human ones, so we stomped off to the bathroom, stepped into the bath, and slid the boots off, allowing the puddles of water to drain out of them.

▼ Then we hung them upside down to dry

Looking at our feet, we were surprised to find they weren’t wrinkly at all after the long soak — they were actually silky smooth! The bicarb worked wonders on the skin, and we vowed then and there to use these as much as possible through winter.

Now that footbath boots exist, surely a full-body hot spring suit is on the cards in the future? Although, come to think of it, tearing a hole in a suit of water would definitely turn your home into a disaster zone. And no army of Godzilla mops would be able to completely dry that mess!

Related: Ashiyu Boots
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