Today is Valentines Day.
In 西洋 (“western”) countries such as America, men give a gift such as chocolate or flowers to the woman he loves…and often he takes her to a restaurant for dinner.
In Japan, Valentine’s Day is celebrated quite differently.
In Japan, women give chocolate to men on Valentines Day.
And not only to the men they love. They will make home-made chocolate or cookies for their husband or boyfriend.
And then they will buy boxes of chocolate for their boss at work (provided their boss is male), male co-workers, brother-in-law, etc. (their father and brothers may get hand-made chocolate or store bought).
Most of the Valentines Day chocolates that women in Japan give is called 「義理チョコ」 (“Obligation chocolate“) because it’s given out of obligation.
「本命チョコ」 (“True love chocolate“) is the handmade (or more expensive store-bought) chocolate that the women give their husband or boyfriend.
And then, on March 14, exactly one month after Valentines Day, is the Japanese original holiday called “White Day“.
On White Day, men must give chocolate or cookies to every woman who gave them a Valentines Day gift in February.
Men don’t normally hand-make White Day chocolates, but just like Valentines…they give “Obligation chocolate” to the women who had given them one and a “True love” gift for their wife or girlfriend.
Click here to see my FAQ about Valentines Day in Japan.
On their website, the Japanese confectioner 「不二家」 (“Fujiya”) is offering free downloads of various “Valentines Day message cards” that you can print and write a message to someone special when you give them a Valentines Day present.
Click here to go to the “Fujiya Valentines Day Cards” page.
Tokyo Five 
Well today (a day after valentines day) the Japanese class boys got chocolates from one girl as they do every year becuase of the Japanese valentines day thing and the guys do give back on March 14 too, I am not taking Japanese, I am taking Spanish, but one of my best friends is but I do say, everyone got store bought chocoaltes like Hershey’s chocolate bars. Now the japanese students did it today because there was no school yesterday because it was a holiday so no school. Me, I did nothing, my mom was supposed to come home form the hospital, bu she came home today instead
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>I am not taking Japanese (class in high school), I am taking Spanish
Your school offers a Japanese language class? When I was a kid, my school offered only Spanish or French.
>one of my best friends is (studying Japanese)
Can he speak Japanese well?
>my mom was supposed to come home form the hospital
Is your mother okay?
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My mom is now home and she is okay now, My friend in his third year of Japanese and he is okay at it. My school offers french also,oot use dot offer latin but the latin teacher is now the vice-principal so there is only three foreign languages now.
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Is Japanese a common foreign language course at high-schools in America now?
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It depends on the area, I live in an area with a lot of asians and so that is probably a reason why my school has it. I am not sure about other schools but I imagine Japanese is a pretty popular language.
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I see.
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I bought that Cher and Christina Aguilera “Burlesque” CD for her. My wife has always liked Christina’s voice and songs. A suspense novel: “Broken” by Karin Slaughter and Dean Koontz “Frankenstein”. My wife has read every book ever written by Dean Koontz!
Gee… I wonder if Karin Slaughter is related to Mark Slaughter? 🙂 My best Metal buddy met Mark Slaughter last Fall and asked Mark to sign an 8×10 for me. 🙂 Happy faces all around! Slaughter is coming to my neck of the woods in late March… I’m taking the family! 🙂
I’ve owned rabbits, guinea pigs, a dog and many cats over my life. One guinea pig lived for seven years! You can read about it if you like:
http://metalodyssey.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/why-did-my-guinea-pig-live-for-seven-great-years/
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>My best Metal buddy met Mark Slaughter last Fall and asked Mark to sign an 8×10 for me.
I remember when Slaughter first came out. I heard their name before I heard their music…with a name like “Slaughter”, I imagined their music would be much heavier than it is.
>I’m taking the family!
Is Slaughter still touring? Do they have a new album? Do your wife and kids enjoy a Slaughter show?
>You can read about it (Guinea Pig) if you like
I read it. Nice story.
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Mark Slaughter actually tours with Nelson as a guitarist. I saw him with Nelson at last years M3 Rock Festival in Maryland. Slaughter tours with his band too now.
I figured Slaughter would be a cool “family” show of Heavy Rock that I can bring my daughters along with. My wife and daughters love melodic Hard Rock and 80’s “arena” Heavy Metal. Classic Rock too they enjoy.
With my daughters, Black Eyed Peas and Justin Bieber still rank higher than my bands though. 😦
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>Mark Slaughter actually tours with Nelson as a guitarist.
I didn’t know that. I never liked Nelson much.
>With my daughters, Black Eyed Peas and Justin Bieber still rank higher than my bands though.
My daughters don’t like the same music as me either. I guess it’s natural for kids to think the music that they’re parents listen to isn’t good…and vice-versa. 😉
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An interesting difference in the Valentines Day culture between Japan and the U.S. and it’s all fun. Are Japanese women obligated to buy a box of chocolate for “every man” they work with? What if there are say, 10, 20 or more men that work in the same building with a respective woman, does she buy that many boxes of chocolates?
I’ve noticed that the “mainstream” store bought boxes of chocolates here in the U.S. are still the same prices, if not higher as each year passes… and the manufacturers are putting less pieces of chocolates in these boxes too. Same or higher price = less product in the box… that’s not my way of doing business! Ugh.
I rather go to the specialty chocolate stores now and just buy that 1/4 or 1/2 pound of chocolate and be done with it! At least you know there are no surprises when you open the box.
– Stone
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>Are Japanese women obligated to buy a box of chocolate for “every man” they work with?
Depending on the size of the company / number of employees, they’ll either give a gift to every male co-worker or else just the ones in her “department”.
At schools, by the way, it’s against the rules to bring food to school…even Valentines gifts. So girls give homemade chocolate to her friends outside of school (unlike adults, Japanese school girls often give Valentines gifts to their friends (other girls)…and maybe one boy).
>What if there are say, 10, 20 or more men that work in the same building with a respective woman, does she buy that many boxes of chocolates?
Not a whole box for each man. Usually all of the female staff will shop together and buy one box or chocolate or cookies that has enough for each male co-worker to have one or two pieces each.
And they’ll give the one box together to all of the male staff as a group.
Did you give your wife Valentines chocolate?
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Yes, she received a large heart shaped box of chocolates, a CD and two paperback books to read. It has been my very own “custom” to give her music to listen to and a book or two to read each Valentines Day since our first Valentines Day together.
Forget flowers… our cat will just eat them. For real too. 🙂
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>a CD and two paperback books
Which CD and books?
>our cat will just eat them (flowers)
I like cats…actually I like animals.
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