Valentine’s Day and White Day

I meant to put this article up in February, and now its even a little late for White Day, but its still interesting so I'm getting it up now.  Enjoy!

Valentine’s Day works a little differently in Japan. On February 14th girls give chocolate to boys that they like. There are huge displays at the stores of all kinds of chocolate treats. Many girls make their own chocolates as a special gesture for the guy they like. Chocolate is pretty much the only gift associated with Valentine’s Day. The chocolates you buy or make for the one you love are called affection chocolates. There are also obligation chocolates, which are chocolates you buy for someone you work with or want to express thanks to in some way. But I think these are becoming less popular. Friend chocolates are becoming more common, which are of course people simply buying chocolate for their friends male and female. Some companies also cater to guys during this time hoping they will buy their chocolates for themselves. The example I saw on the news was made from aged sake, and they hoped that sake enthusiast would pick them up.


Now March 14th is White Day, the day on which all of the boys return the favor to the girls who bought them chocolate on Valentine’s Day. The most common treats for this holiday are cookies and marshmallows. I forgot to take pictures of the Valentine's Day displays, but here are a few of the White Day ones.

For both Valentine’s and White Day the stores set up a special area where they will wrap your gifts for you, free of charge. It’s very convenient, especially if you have bought a lot.

Last year I bought chocolate for all of the male teachers I work with. With four schools it ended up being nearly fifty chocolates, so I had to buy rather cheap ones. But as far as I am aware, I’m the only female teacher who brought them chocolate at all, so I think the gesture was appreciated. I did it because I wanted to say thank you to everyone for helping me in my first year and because I wanted to try experiencing Valentine’s the Japanese way. Since I didn’t know if the other female teachers would be bringing chocolates I didn’t want to be left as the only one who didn’t bring any.

Everyone seemed very amused at my participation in the holiday and I think my gesture was appreciated. After all, everyone loves to get free chocolate. When White Day came I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I pulled in quite an impressive haul all things considered. It was pretty exciting.

This year Valentine’s Day fell over the weekend and I decided not to buy chocolates for all my teachers. After all, I actually had Eric here this year to buy chocolate for.