St. Valentine's Day is one among several holidays that have been imported and... altered... by the Japanese. Here, the burden falls almost entirely upon women to supply men with large amounts of chocolate. I'm not too surprised that this was turned into yet another occasion upon which women are expected to service men.
Which will make it doubly effective when I serve up a candlelit dinner to my girlfriend on Valentine's Day, and take her to the Nagasaki lantern festival on Saturday. I am gambling a bit on the dinner, though - so far the only western food she likes is hamburgers, and she doesn't like my take on Japanese...
As an interesting aside, the Japanese confectionary industry manufactured another holiday in March - White Day. On that day, men are supposed to give marshmellows to the ladies. At work I have made a habit of making s'mores for the ladies on Valentine's Day...
Fukuoka, eh? I'm also living in Fukuoka prefecture (but out in the sticks) and saw a great shooting star on Thursday the 3rd as I was biking home.
It did get a mention to some friends a few nights later, but I didn't notice anything special about the colors. A toast to my perceptions and memory!
Of course, now everyone who has spotted a shooting star in the past few weeks will be wondering if they could have provided some crucial evidence if only they'd paid more attention...
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St. Valentine's Day is one among several holidays that have been imported and... altered... by the Japanese. Here, the burden falls almost entirely upon women to supply men with large amounts of chocolate. I'm not too surprised that this was turned into yet another occasion upon which women are expected to service men. Which will make it doubly effective when I serve up a candlelit dinner to my girlfriend on Valentine's Day, and take her to the Nagasaki lantern festival on Saturday. I am gambling a bit on the dinner, though - so far the only western food she likes is hamburgers, and she doesn't like my take on Japanese... As an interesting aside, the Japanese confectionary industry manufactured another holiday in March - White Day. On that day, men are supposed to give marshmellows to the ladies. At work I have made a habit of making s'mores for the ladies on Valentine's Day...
It did get a mention to some friends a few nights later, but I didn't notice anything special about the colors. A toast to my perceptions and memory!
Of course, now everyone who has spotted a shooting star in the past few weeks will be wondering if they could have provided some crucial evidence if only they'd paid more attention...