School Kids

Everyone knows about the stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl uniform. It's been in movies, cartoons, etc. Well I just want to add that those girls are everywhere. There are multiple versions of these uniforms depending on which school you go to and apparently they never take them off. They are like an entirely different subset of kids over here. I see plenty of kids with normal clothes on walking around and then there are the uniformed kids. Maybe it's a private school thing. I don't know. I was in McDonalds around 8 pm tonight and there were girls there still in uniform (there was also kid who couldn't have been more than 12 working the register). There are also uniforms for guys (not as revealing, but equally distinctive).

What may not be as well known are the hats that younger Japanese children wear to school. These also come in many varieties. I also discovered that when school has ended there are tons of these little kids basically roaming the streets going home. Unattended like 5, 6, 7 year olds just walking home. At first I thought that there must have been adults nearby that I wasn't seeing, but no. These kids are like cattle coming home from pasture at the end of the day. They just wander around with their backpacks and their little hats held on by the elastic bands under their chins.