happy v-day
I had a Valentine's Day lesson planned for my classes at Seibu Elementary today but just now was informed by my head teacher that all my students are out on a field trip :( So no lessons today. I was gunna let them try some of the "Sweetheart" candies my sister sent me too. I've been giving them to people to try this past week and every Japanese person says they taste "kusuri-ppoi!" (like medicine). I guess medicine in Japan tastes like chalky sugar.
for those unfamiliar, Japanese Valentines wo setsumei shimasu...
Valentine's Day in Japan is a lot less commercially hyped up than in America but is still celebrated, just a bit differently. In Japan ladies give the men chocolate- typically milk or dark. Receiving chocolate doesn't necessarily mean the person giving it to you is your friend, or even likes you for that matter... This chocolate is called "giri" chocolate, or rather "obligation" chocolate. It's not uncommon for women to give out several dozen "giri" boxes of chocolates to all of her male coworkers, each extravagantly pre-wrapped and sold at department stores and malls across the country.
"Honmei" chocolate is reserved for a guy you genuinely like. Sometimes this kind of gift is hand-made chocolates or cookies, but for the less creative department stores provide other pre-wrapped "honmei" gifts like neck ties. Kinda lame eh.
Twenty years or so ago Japan created a new holiday on March 14th called "White Day," which gives all the lucky guys who received giri/honmei chocolate an opportunity to reciprocate the gesture with white chocolate...which I still think is pretty lame. I'll take dark any day.
...anyway, explanation over.
I'm more or less over my cold (flu? not sure), although I may have made 1 or 2 people sick along the way :\
Saturday night a bunch of us drove south to the annual Toga Soba Festival. The snow sculptures were partially melted due to the abnormally warm weather but they were still quite impressive, especially at night once they were lit up. For the grand finale they had all the performers on stage (made entirely of snow) with fireworks set off in time to the music. It also started snowing pretty heavily during the firework show which added to the "ii funiki" :D
on stage afterwards
I didn't give any of my male coworkers chocolates today... I guess this means no reciprocal chocolate in march :\
for those unfamiliar, Japanese Valentines wo setsumei shimasu...
Valentine's Day in Japan is a lot less commercially hyped up than in America but is still celebrated, just a bit differently. In Japan ladies give the men chocolate- typically milk or dark. Receiving chocolate doesn't necessarily mean the person giving it to you is your friend, or even likes you for that matter... This chocolate is called "giri" chocolate, or rather "obligation" chocolate. It's not uncommon for women to give out several dozen "giri" boxes of chocolates to all of her male coworkers, each extravagantly pre-wrapped and sold at department stores and malls across the country.
"Honmei" chocolate is reserved for a guy you genuinely like. Sometimes this kind of gift is hand-made chocolates or cookies, but for the less creative department stores provide other pre-wrapped "honmei" gifts like neck ties. Kinda lame eh.
Twenty years or so ago Japan created a new holiday on March 14th called "White Day," which gives all the lucky guys who received giri/honmei chocolate an opportunity to reciprocate the gesture with white chocolate...which I still think is pretty lame. I'll take dark any day.
...anyway, explanation over.
I'm more or less over my cold (flu? not sure), although I may have made 1 or 2 people sick along the way :\
Saturday night a bunch of us drove south to the annual Toga Soba Festival. The snow sculptures were partially melted due to the abnormally warm weather but they were still quite impressive, especially at night once they were lit up. For the grand finale they had all the performers on stage (made entirely of snow) with fireworks set off in time to the music. It also started snowing pretty heavily during the firework show which added to the "ii funiki" :D
on stage afterwards
I didn't give any of my male coworkers chocolates today... I guess this means no reciprocal chocolate in march :\
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