Winter Wear Question

Hi,
I'm currently staying in Japan for winter and, being an anime fan, have always wanted those warm tops(coat-things) that you see them wearing (the father in Lucky Star always wears one, so does Shigure from Fruits Basket). The only problem is I have NO IDEA what they are called. I asked a friend of mine and she said they were called Chanchanko, but they are sleeveless and the one I'm after has sleeves. So I wanted to know what they were called so I can buy one and keep warm this winter.

Not being an anime or manga fan, I have no idea what the characters you mention wear, but it sounds like you are describing a hanten:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanten

You can get them at any department store- Ito Yokado, Seiyu etc if you don't want to spend too much, but I imagine you can also get really expensive ones in places like Takashimaya if you wanted.

I had a look at them. The ones I'm trying to describe have long sleeves.
The best pic I can find ATM is the green piece of clothing here:

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1556/ls6rn0.png

The picture you posted looks like an ordinary haori (which are not padded) to me, not really like winter wear. Men wear haori with hakama and kimono on special occasions in any season, and women sometimes wear haori over kimono when it's colder or raining. Hanten can have fairly long sleeves, unless they are sized for tiny little obaachans.

Wiki tells me that hanten is basically a padded haori.

Thank you for your reply. I shall ask around for some.

Cameron,

It might depend on the scene but the overwear that Lucky Star dad and Shigura Soma wears are indeed haori.

A haori to the Japanese is quite similar to what a cardigan is to the British. You can wear them when meeting people either at home or outside, and the more formal ones can be worn at the most formal occasions. They are to be kept neat and clean, and not commonly worn over Western clothes as it really doesn't mean much to do so. They are not necessarily that warm and the coordination is what counts.

In the manga/anime discribed, they are used to emphasize the traditional classiness of the two characters. Just as British men wearing cardigans can look more classy and old-school, Japanese men wearing haori and kimono can definately look so.

On the other hand, hanten is very warm and casual and don't need much extra care. Therefore, a lot of young Japanese people still wear it today at home over jeans or sweatpants or whatnot. I believe they are often much cheaper than haori.

But I can understand that a young manga/anime fan would want to wear haori rather than hanten. Ask at your local kimono shop or department store. By the way, haori may look like happi but it's not.

You should be able to pick up a haori at local shops too - the real woven ones. Seiyu (Wal-Mart in JPN) and Ito-Yokado may have cheap ones with their better ones in an entirely different tax bracket. But if you want something that will last (and is made in JPN), you should ask your neighborhood baa-san where she gets hers.

Haori aren't that warm and I'd only call them winter wear when indoors near a gas burner in front of a hot glass of atsukan.
If you knew how cold it gets in Japan, you'd probably be better off buying Columbia or NorthFace.