Valentine-san's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

OK, I know I am a few days late, but hey... I have been busy! So get off my back! Jeesh!

Valentine's day in Japan is a bit different than in our western culture. Feb. 14 is technically Valentine's Day and over here the women are the ones giving all of the chocolate. There are two types of chocolate that women give to men.

First is the giri choco, which is an obligatory gift of chocolate given to male family members, male superiors, male co-workers and any man she comes into contact with on a regular basis. Most women will purchase between 10-30 boxes of this inexpensive chocolate ranging from 2-10 bucks.

Honmel Choco, is the expensive chocolate a woman will give to a man she married to, dating or interested in. I have seen this type of chocolate range from 15 to 200 dollars (depending on the quality and quantity). Most women will also buy a small gift to accompany the chocolate for her someone special. A traditional gift to give a man for V-day is a neck-tie (because a lot more men wear them on an everyday basis over here... therefore, it is a very practical gift (and the japanese are all about practicality when it comes to gifts)).

Now, don't get too upset ladies, because March 14th is White Day. White Day is the day in which men stop feeling guilty about the amount of chocolate they recieved and give chocolate to the women who gave them chocolate. This chocolate is packaged in white boxes (hence the name of the holiday) and tends to be priced slightly higher than theValentine's day chocolate.

Half of the chocolate sold in Japan is purchased for Valentine's Day. Imported chocolates can be found everywhere. From Department stores, to 7-11. A recently trendy thing to attempt in Japan is to give home-made chocolate. But since most Japanese people have no experience with baking or making candy, almost everyone buys it.

Aside from all the chocolate giving... I have found myself single on another Valentine's Day (don't give me your crappy PITY... because I have no need or want of it! Thank you.) So, me and my Shimo Girls Tressa-chan and Crystal-lu-chan headed out to a fun night at the Shidax, our regular karaoke establishment.

A great evening of Singing, Pizza and Grapefruit n Sho-chu ensured that we had a very HAPPY V-Day. We requested a different room than usual and since we had a different karaoke system, we had a numerous amount of songs that are not available to us in other rooms.

Hence, the warm-up hour was immediatly followed by the country-western hour, which was followed by the newest rap/hip hop hour, which was followed by the more salt for our five punds of edamame hour and ended by the hodgepodge/Tressa spilling her drink on the floor hour. GREAT TIMES!

Of course, I was the resposible one... because I needed to be at work and ready to teach at 8:30. So I limited my drinking, increased my singing and had to turn the girls down for a late night Ramen Run at 12:30am. Overall... I had all the love I needed from my two fabulous friends and will postpone any romantic intrests until a later date. I am off to a meeting and need to get my butt in motion or else I'm going to be late. All my love and more...