Koromogae

Change of Wardrobe

"The inherent Japanese sense of season is so detailed that it pays attention, even to clothing." This means that on or around June 1st and October 1st (the official dates) Japanese people do a wardrobe exchange with the clothes they have been storing in, say, their garden shed, for example. I have asked some of my students about this practice and clarified that only summer and winter clothes are exchanged, while 'spring and autumn clothes' stay in their wardrobe all year round. What I find interesting is the strict categorisation of the clothes into seasons. But I guess it's not unlike what I used to do at home; keep my large winter coats in a spare wardrobe in another room.

This change of seasons business does have one more serious ramification. That is the change of vending machines. Evidentially, from June 1st no one would even dare to think of wanting a hot beverage. All the vending machines (and there are a lot) have been changed so that you can only buy cold drinks. And this includes all the coffee and tea too. In this case I think they've gone too far with this seasons business. I can't take a coffee drinker seriously if they can go for half of the year without hot coffee.