Everyday Japan - school uniforms

You can't walk down the street here without noticing what children wear to school - and how different it is from what most American schools require.

1. Most young Japanese schoolchildren wear brightly colored brimmed hats to school every day, along with navy shorts year round for boys. The caps likely make the children more visible to drivers - useful because children travel to school by themselves by age 6 - and they also identify their class within a school.

Last week at Shinjuku Gyoen, a park, for Lucinda's field trip, I found a good way to illustrate this very visible fashion statement.






2. Young children sometimes wear smocks in parks to keep their clothes spotless. And even preschoolers carry backpacks and sometimes 1 or 2 other little bags with them.



3. Private school uniforms, for all ages, are ubiquitous!

Sailor uniforms are fashionable here for girls, plus knee socks and penny loafers. Elementary-age schoolgirls (whom I haven't managed to photograph) often wear navy-blue brimmed hats with ribbons; their mothers, who take them to and from school, are equally well-dressed. Boys typically wear military-style jackets or blazers with gray slacks and loafers or sneakers. They almost always carry identical school bags, too.

Traveling in groups as they often do - on the street, in the subway - they look like flocks of birds. I saw these students near the Tokyo Sea Life Park, an aquarium where Arno's school had a field trip.