Anthony is getting to the age where he'll start preschool soon, so we've started to evaluate a number of them. Japanese pre-school, called youchien (幼稚園) and sometimes "kindergarten", generally goes for three years starting during the school year in which they turn three years old. (In the US, of course, "kindergarten" is generally a half a day for one school year at about age four or five.)

Each school has its own formal uniforms that the kids wear on the way to/from school. Being very formal (jacket, vest, shirt) but for kids (short pants and short-sleeve shirt), they're generally quite [...]