Valentines 2014

I believe I’ve mentioned in my previous posts that while for the rest of the world, men are racking their brains for new ways to surprise their women with Valentines Day gifts, it’s a whole lot different here in Japan (and I think Korea too). It’s Chocolate Day here; and it’s the women who give to the men they love or to men who are close to their hearts. There were Feb 14s in which Hubs kept to the rest of the world’s tradition and gave me flowers. For this year though, I kept to the Japanese tradition. But since we are in dire need of cups, I bought Hubs the Starbucks’ Valentines special mug instead of giving him chocolates.

 

Love shared over steaming mugs of ginger drink – because the two of us have cough and colds.

IMG_6708.JPG

 

IMG_6710.JPG

 

The three of us were supposed to have our special Valentines snack at the cozy cafe near our place but the three of us overslept (Mom and Dad accompanied baby to sleep) . We woke up just in time though for our reservation at the condo’s karaoke bar. FUN! We decided to have the special dinner at the cafe but by the time we finished our karaoke and groceries, the cafe was already about to close. And because it was already late for me to cook, our dinner was yakiimo (baked sweet potato) – simple but nutritious and delicious.

It was a simple kind of V-day, devoid of pomp and expensive flowers. We didn’t even have photos! The photo above was the last one I took since yet again I don’t have enough iPhone space. Nevertheless, it was a happy one, one that’s filled with contentment. And yes, we wouldn’t want to spend it any other way. 🙂

white day

March 14, Japan’s supposed White Day**, found me and Hubbie apprehensive. He has to go to the office and considering the tremors over the weekend and the ensuing  radiation scare, we were both apprehensive to be apart from each other. Still though, he has to go, especially that there really is no visible major effect the quake had in Yokohama except for the fact that there were shelves in the groceries with missing supplies (probably because of panic buying by people and most probably by gaijins, sorry to say this) and of course our nerves in jangles what with one tremor after another and what with keeping ourselves posted, with bated breath, on the latest updates on the nuclear plants.

I keep myself posted mostly by reading updates on Kyodo News Network. It’s so Japanese, balanced, reporting what needs to be reported, without too much flair. CNN is just too filled with drama for me. Not-so Japanese. I do try to venture other news networks every now and then but mostly, i’m for Kyodo News. As Hubbie pointed out, media has the tendency to over-commercialize what is happening, because indeed, they earn out of the news they share. I do hope media will do their own share as well in keeping people at bay and to not cause more people to panic.

So okay, I digress. Jagged nerves in place, receiving a package first thing in the morning with a cheerful “yubin desu!!” (you have a package!) in the intercom was certainly heartwarming. I had to pool in some of my EQ to wait for Hubbie before opening our package.

Dhonna addressed it to both me and Hubbie hence it was just but right to wait for Atsushi. And am glad I did. It felt good opening our package together.

It contained our cord and it’s container and a hardbound book about marriage and a heartwarming card. Certainly a good thing to receive at a time when we are most fearful.

We just love the cord. Workmanship is really good!! And the materials used was certainly of good quality.

We just love the container. It’s so cute! See the size of the container in comparison to Hubbie’s thumb?

We just love the detail that Ghepoi and Dhonna put into packaging our cord. They put a cute-designed crepe paper to lay the cord on on the container. They also put a sticker of our logo on the inside of the container cover – I think they got it from the save-the-date envelope that I gave them before.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thank you Dhonna and Ghepoi!! 🙂

———

**White Day is the equivalent of Valentines Day that’s designated for women. See, on the Japanese Valentines Day, the women give their husbands/lovers/boyfriends/crushes/officemates chocolates,cakes, etc etc. White Day is in turn the day when the men reciprocate the women’s initiative. For this year’s White Day though, there were no extravagant and elegant displays of gifts as there were in the previous years.