Cletus' First Collegiate Dictionary of Japanese Chin Music
yukata
A light cotton robe, usually worn in summer. Blue and white yukata are standard issue at Japanese inns and hot springs resorts. Make sure the right side of the robe goes on the outside (or was it the left side?), so you won’t be mistaken for a corpse. Also, if you are new to Japan and a neighbor presents you with a yukata and tells you that everyone will be wearing one at the bon-odori festivities that night, be warned: You are definitely being set up. In fact, you may be the only one wearing a yukata, with the exception of a few elderly ladies, and you may look and feel like an idiot. Also, because you don’t really know how to wear one of these robes, you may inadvertently show way more flesh than a Japanese would – if they actually wore these robes. However, one good thing will come of all this: That night will be seared onto your memory as if it happened yesterday, not in 1986.