Cool Biz

I grew up in San Francisco, where I was pretty spoiled in terms of the weather, since it's rather mild all year. Unfortunately, ever since I moved away in 1986 to go see the world, starting with Germany, I've mostly had to deal with the four seasons (and I'm not talking about the hotel!). Japan is no different from many of my other homes away from home over the years, which primarily means pretty cold winters and hot, humid summers.

Because of the nasty summers, a lot of companies and schools across Japan, including my school, run a campaign called "Cool Biz" from June 1-September 30. The point of the campaign is save electricity (mostly in the form of air conditioning) by allowing employees to dress more casually than normal. Basically what that means is, at my school, during the Cool Biz period, we can wear short-sleeve shirts and we don't have to wear ties. I almost never wear a tie, anyway, so that little perk doesn't apply to me, but I certainly enjoy wearing short-sleeves.

Tomorrow, Thursday, is the 30th, so, technically, starting Friday the men will have to be back to wearing ties and long-sleeve shirts. Luckily, however, the dress code isn't really enforced, so I don't expect too many teachers to change over to the standard style of dress right away.

Soon enough, though, it'll be freezing here again, and many of us will be back to wearing fifteen layers of clothing.