Happy ♥ Day

~To all of you out there with a Special Someone, allow me to say Happy St. Valentine's Day! To everyone else, I hope you survive the "Most Hated Holiday" with your ego intact. Anyway, the celebration of Valentine's Day is quite different in Japan. The most obvious difference is that February 14th is a day for women to give chocolate to men...not the other way around.

That's right, guys--on Valentine's Day in Japan, you don't have to do anything: no flowers, no chocolate, no expensive dinner...but women will give you chocolate. It's great.

There are two categories of chocolate that women give to men: giri choco (obligatory chocolate) and honmei choco (chocolate for the man the woman is serious about). For example, male coworkers often receive giri choco from their female counterparts. Fortunately for me, male teachers also sometimes get giri choco from female students (or at least, I *assume* it's giri choco):

^ Luckyyyy D♥vid! This is one example of the chocolate I got from my students. Cute, isn't it? Not to mention delicious.

Valentine's Day was originally imported into Japan in 1958 by candy companies, who heavily marketed this Western tradition with candy sales and advertisements. Nowadays, supermarkets and departments stores set up huge candy displays in the month leading up to Valentine's Day, with dozens of different kinds of chocolate in a wide range of prices. The ubiquitous convenience stores are also well-stocked should you need some chocolate at the last minute. There is no set division between giri choco and honmei choco, although chocolate a woman buys as honmei choco will invariably be of the more expensive variety.

When, you might ask, do men get around to buying chocolate for the girls? This is done on a unique Japanese holiday called White Day, which is celebrated on March 14th, exactly one month after Valentine's Day. White Day was originally created in 1965 by a marshmallow company to increase sales. The idea behind White Day is that men are supposed to "repay" women who got them chocolate, by buying them something white.

Traditionally, chocolate bought for White Day comes in white boxes, which, for the next month, you can find at any store in Japan that sells candy. However, the variety of "repayment" gifts for White Day is much broader than just chocolate, and may include cards, cookies, flowers, and of course marshmallows. Remember, nothing says lovin' like s'mores over a campfire. ~Oyasumi!