Observed

[imomus]

Comments

[kurenai-kaishin.livejournal.com]

Those workers, or whatever they might be, are going "samurai fashion"

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm just flipping through Japanese magazines, or flopping through a Japanese city, and I see this stuff. Since I don't read Japanese, I have to supply my own context, and that's kind of fun. However, my beautiful assistant will sometimes supply me with additional information. "This padded jacket is called a chanchanko," she will say in an arcade where I've stopped to admire what I take to be a padded red tartan waistcoat. "It's to keep the top half of you warm when the bottom half is under a kotatsu table."