Coldness and Youth: Children of the Wind

There is no winter uniform... this is it, all year round

When I was a child my mother often told me to wear warmer clothes or I would catch a cold. Being a revolting child I used to reply that the common cold is a virus and that wearing more layers wouldn’t prevent the transmission of the virus. Despite my cheek, the idea that getting cold will lead to sickness is deeply ingrained in me (and in Western culture generally).  I also see small children and weaker and more vulnerable to the cold and physical discomfort than adults or teenagers. It’s been interesting for me to have both of these assumptions challenged in Japan. I’m writing this post after shivering through lunch in a classroom without heating or insulation… and with the windows thrown wide open. Although my grandchildren will doubtless never believe me, snow was literally blowing into the classroom. Why were the windows open when it was snowing? Because the ‘flu is going around, and the belief that fresh air will disperse the germs is stronger than any idea that getting cold will make the students more prone to illness. The junior high school girls’ winter uniform is a skirt and ankle socks. That’s right… bare legs. In the snow. No-one apart from me finds this scene peculiar. It’s even worse in kindergarten (three and four year-olds). There the uniform is shorts and cotton T-shirts all year round, and out-door play is mandatory. At a school I visited recently the kids have a fifteen minute 縄飛びタイム during which they skip (jump-rope) to music to warm themselves up at the start of every day. The teachers wear warm clothes and sometimes even jackets and scarves. Kindergartners are called children of the wind, 風の子, and they are seen as incredibly strong and resilient. In primary (elementary) school the children who wear T-shirts through the winter are praised by the teachers and there is a competitive element to how much coldness the kids can endure. When I asked an eight-year-old who was wearing a tank-top on a snowy day if he was cold, the class-room teacher commented “isn’t the power of youth great?” By contrast, many high schools have heating and the girls’ uniforms include stockings. The power of youth must be fading by then…