Sun protection

How popular are suntans in Japan? Well, from what I see they're not at all.
You might see the odd surfer (-girl) on the beach who is deeply tanned and proudly showing it off. Otherwise white skin seems to be the desirable thing here. You see a vast assortment of whitening lotions at drugstores. Malls sell elbow length sunprotection gloves and leg"warmers". And women all either wear a big sunhat or carry an elegant sun umbrella. Malls sell these in all kinds of fabrics, colors, sizes and price ranges. It's much harder to find umbrellas against rain actually.

I decided to go with the trend, although I'm not opposed to having a little tan. As I would inevitably loose the umbrella given the first opportunity and since I consider these a bit ridiculous, I went for the hat. There are tons of beautiful hats on sale. Found mine in a small shop in Daymio quarter and I really think I picked a nice "kawaii" (cute) one. Don't you think so?