Every little thing in my ordinary life 43
Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s day is just around the corner.
I guess people living in the Western countries give cards or flowers to someone special. On the contrary, in Japan, women give their boyfriends or male friends chocolates, etc.. Japanese women express their affections or gratitude by gifting chocolates.
The first chocolate I was given this year was from my student. Not GODIVA, not MOROZOFF, but a bag of CHOCO BALL. It is one of products for kids which MORINAGA, a Japanese snack company, has been producing for over 40 years.
Actually, I do love this sweet. I don’t need luxurious chocolates.
About 15 years ago, my ex-girlfriend came to see me shouldering something like Santa Claus on Valentine’s Day. A bunch of CHOCO BALL were packed there. She knew what I loved. lol
Here’s an image of CHOCO BALL. They come in several flavors.
The main character to CHOCO BALL, kyoro-chan
By the way, we have another event related to Valentine’s Day in March, which men have to re-gift something to the women who presented chocolates on Valentine’s Day. It is called ‘White Day’. Men have to give the women something valuable which is worth twice or thrice as much as the chocolates. We call such behaviors ‘nibaigaeshi‘ or ‘sanbaigaeshi‘.
A guide simulation at Atsuta Shrine
One of my friend has finally passed one of the most difficult English tests in Japan. We’re going to hold a party to celebrate him next month. I’m planning to guide him and other friends at a one famous shrine in Aichi prefecture, Atsuta shrine.
I think I need time to prepare for it. I hope vicious words “simulation terminated!” would NOT alert me during the guide. lol
Great post, I learned something new about Japan and about you!
And the grammar was good. 🙂
p.s. i have a new website. check it out if you want, although it doesn’t have much yet
Hello, Jeri! How are you? Hey, the interview is just around the corner! Don’t forget, Jeri. Your smile should be the biggest and best feature at the interview. 🙂
Today, I received a souvenir from my subordinate, who travelled Italy last week. She said, ‘Here is my giri choco for you.’ She is not my girlfriend, but just a subordinate. She just expressed her gratitude to me by gifting the chocolate.
>And the grammar was good.
Really? Wow, I’m so glat to hear that. I’ll keep trying too hard on learning English. ‘R’ sound is all I’ve got to improve. 😆
I do hope for your success at the interview.
Thanks, Jeri.
Happy Valentine’s Day H.P. 🙂
I knew already about how Japan celebrated this day. Also there is something known as Black Day, this is for those who are single. I think it’s celebrated in South Korea.
No, you being the guide will get Arnold the Terminator that’ll pop out and cause everyone to panic and run. But you’ll stand up to him and give it to him. A woman in the crowd would love your bravery and . . .
😆
Congrats to your friend.
Give me chocolate cake and keep the chocolate. 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day, girlgeum. 🙂
Oh, Black Day?! I’ve not heard of it before. Have you ever heard of ‘Single Bell’? It’s the word altered from ‘Jingle Bell’ when single and lonely people use on Christmas in Japan. 🙂
>No, you being the guide will get…
Oh, girlgeum. 😆 A woman in the crowd would say ‘How disgusting!” if I were like you said. 😆
Single Bell, never heard of it. Being single isn’t a death sentence. 🙂
No she wouldn’t, unless of course you’re not her type. Ah well. Perhaps there were more than one woman in the crowd.
Oh, you haven’t heard of it? It’s often used in Japan(I gather).
Oh, more than one woman… Sounds nice(hey! I would wonder if I would be able to find Ms.Right between them. 😆
Maybe. Or it can turn into something different. Maybe like they’re aliens or something and they were sent to earth to kidnap people to carry them back to their planet to do experiments on them. Whew, no comma.
See, genres can pop up from anything. 🙂
They talk to me to kidnap, to take me to their planet, and to let me under experiments? Oh, my Gosh. I should report it to the Area 51 in U.S.! 😆
Have you ever watched the X-Files?
X-Files. Maybe I have watched the first season of it. If my memry serves well, Twin Peaks was more famous than X-Files at that time. After that, X-Files beat it, I guess.
I loved Twin Peaks. 🙂 “That’s darn good coffee.”
During the final seasons of the X-Files it just went downhill for me.
The second movie was terrible.
How many series did the X-Files go?
Hmmm, I feel like watching Twin Peaks, again.
I think they went 8 seasons.
Have you ever watched the Lethal Weapon movie series with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover? I was thinking about them.
8 seasons! Wow!
Of course I know the series of Lethal Weapon. The first or the second movie, I think the best. MAD MAX 2 is rather good. 🙂
I saw Mad Max 1. Lethal Weapon 1 is the best. Now they’re thinking about making part 5. Geesh!
A Bodyguard remake is also in the making. I love singing that song from the movie, I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston. The movie was okay.
They didn’t need all those seasons.
Lethal Weapon 5?! How is Detective Riggs investigating? Not by his macho body, I guess. 🙂
Remaked ‘A Bodyguard’… It is said that we don’t have talented screenwriters in Japan. Not the Hollywood?
Now here comes a remake of Robocop.
Hollywood is buying and remaking movies from Asia, have been for years. Talent is everywhere.
>Hollywood is buying and remaking movies from Asia…
Yes. I think it means that scriptwriters at Hollywood became no longer talented. The same things have happened in Japan. TV media buy scripts of Japanese comics and make films. It is said that script writers in Japan are not able to make original scripts. It’s so sad. 😦
I guess more doors need to be open for them, not only to a selected few.
Hi, girlgeum, how’s it goin’? Here, it’s been tough. 😦
Yes. The new doors are needed. I don’t know what it is, though. To wait for the doors to come, or to head for the doors. That’s the problem.
Make your own door. 🙂
Hello, girlgeum. How was your weekend?
Wow, ‘make my own door’ sounds cool. Yes, exactly. I hope great movies are born in the future.
Weekend was good. 🙂 And yours?
Hi, girlgeum, how are you?
I had a meeting this weekend, as usual. 🙂 Oh, I obtained an iPad. It’s going to be useful to me. 😉
Technology is constantly upgrading. A person can go broke. 🙂
Hello, girlgeum. How was your weekend?
I’m typing this comment through my iPad. 😉 So useful.
Yes, you’re right. People are the ones who advance technology, also the ones who become in danger by it. People can tell it is dangerous, though, they can’t help depending on it: nuclear power plants. 😦
Technology is no panacea.
Yes. That’s right. An crucial choise is staring us in the face. 😦
I guess they’re concern about clean energy.
yeah, we should do. The problem is when we will be able to innovate a new clean technology, and how we should do until the day has come. 😦
Good question. I guess use the safest cleanest source of energy until then, but not everything is cut and dry.
Hi, girlgeum. 🙂
The government of Japan, every scientist, and common people including me should think of it. Also, we have another problem that we should solve. Actually, we run two types of electricity in Japan. Their frequencies are different between the eastern area and the western area. In this area, we don’t need to worry about black out so far. However, the amount of electricity that we can send from the western to the eastern is not so much because of the capacity. That’s also what we have to overcome.
There’s a lot of area to cover.
Yes, but what can be done? What can be used? If people come together, then maybe, but the world, i.e., countries are so far apart on working these things out.
Other countries are going nuclear while those that have are checking what they have now, others are putting on hold their nuclear energy plans. What’s good for a country? Population growth demands energy, but how does one calculate how to give it to them not at high cost.
Here we don’t have to worry about that. We also have rolling blackouts all the time. So some of us are use to going without light because of our poorly managed light company, yeah, the one that has a monopoly.
Hi, girlgeum. 😉
You might become surprised at this; actually there are few blackouts in Japan. It means that we aren’t used to them. I’m not so sure how many Japanese will accept them. Due to the radiations, refusal to remain nuclear power plants is gradually staring us in the face without matured discussion. I’m not sure how we, not evacuees, would feel when sweltering summer comes.
You’re blessed. The longest we had a blackout was I think 7-8 hours. I’m used to not going with light. Sometimes the water company does the same thing. There’s no water for hours or the water pressure is low. None of these things are caused by any disaster.
This is my country. Maybe one day they’ll get it right. Fingers crossed. Praying. 😆
Hi, girlgeum! I’m sorry for my belated reply. 😦
I don’t know if Japanese will become used to such long blackout. Industries also rely on electricity so much. We need to think of this serious problem.