Bright Hats

In the early hours of the morning, the street next to my temporary home is alive with the shuffle of feet and the constant murmur of excited children on their way to school. Wednesday mornings (the mornings I'm so fortunate as to have a 9am class) I'm still in the process of waking up as I run out the door to start my long, never-ending walk to the train station. But first I have to navigate my way through huddles of small ten year olds and across a crowded narrow bridge really only wide enough for two average sized people at once.



What interests me are a couple of things. First, the fact that all of the school children are packed in groups of what looks like around 20 students each, being led through the neighborhood streets by either an adult chaperone or another, much older student. There are no room for cars in these streets let alone large vans or busses, so walking is the most efficient choice of travel. Older children may ride bicycles to school, such as teenagers, but these children are too young. Instead they are lead through the streets in large groups like a parade, as mothers look on from their doorways.
Another thing that struck me were their uniforms. But not just their uniforms, as I had gotten used to seeing Japanese students wearing uniforms long before this particular trip to Japan. What stuck out to me more were their bright yellow hats.
I hadn't seen much of that aspect of the uniform before, except for maybe a goofy *Pnish* performance; pictured below.


The skit itself is hysterical; four men in their mid-thirties portraying schoolboys into anime and playing games on their way home from school.

Research tells me that smaller grades often have a hat as part of their school uniform. The older guides were also wearing those bright hats, and why is still a mystery to me, but it must just be because the entire school has the same uniform. After asking my host mother Machiko, the only (yet very logical) explanation she came up with was that the hats served as markers. Cars or bikes driving by can easily spot the bright yellow color and be careful of the children. I've also found out that some schools have two different colored hats; one for each gender, much like some schools have two different colored backpacks for the same purpose. Here I've noticed, at least with this school, that the only difference is in the hat's shape (which I hadn't even noticed until I inspected the photos). Girls have a rounded hat, while boys have baseball caps. Machiko couldn't think of any reason why; "That's just the way it is. Caps for boys and hats for girls." I was quite a picky child myself, what if I liked the male style better? Haha.