October 1st — Time To Change Your Uniform

Do you that rustling noise? It’s the sound of millions of Japanese students, mostly in junior high and high school, changing from their summer to their winter uniforms. Today is the day for koromo-gae (koh-roh-moh GA-eh), meaning “seasonal changing of clothes,” when Japanese students will switch from their light uniforms for summer to their heavier uniforms for winter, which they all do on the same day, from Kyushu to Hokkaido. (Okinawa, being extra warm, gets to wear their summer uniforms for two months longer than the rest of the country.) Of course, the weather doesn’t always get the memo, and at the end of September it got really cold in Japan, forcing my son to go to school shivering in his summer uniform…and of course, now that the uniform change has come, it’s gotten really warm again, so he’ll be sweating. Like many aspects of Japan there’s more to the clothes-changing custom than meets the eye, and it turns out that it dates back to the Heian Period (794-1185), when the Emperor would commemorate the seasons by officially changing his ceremonial kimonos from winter to summer or vice-versa. Of course, J-List sells authentic high school uniforms for guys and girls, including both summer and winter versions of girls’ uniforms, which are custom made to your exact size by the famous Matsukameya of Nagoya. If you’d like to own a cool high school uniform of your very own, browse our site now. Yes, there’s plenty of time to get your uniform made and shipped to you by Halloween, although it’s a good idea to order quickly.