Tag Archives: white day

Valentines!

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While most of the men in most other countries are racking their brains for original ideas on how to surprise their women on Valentine’s Day, it’s the women who are busy here in Japan every 14th of February. They bake cakes, cookies, chocolates, and other pastries, to give to their men or crushes on top of thinking of ways on how to be original about it. For some who doesn’t have the time to bake though, chocolates and cakes in pretty boxes are available everywhere.

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Ten years back when we were first assigned here in Yokohama, we were so amazed on how all of the customers in chocolate stalls as the ones above were only women.

Supposedly, the women give the men gifts on Valentines Day and the men, in reply would give the women gifts on White Day – March 14. We were told that if you gave a guy you were crushing on a gift on V-day and you didn’t receive anything on March 14, well, one could pretty some up the story. 😛

As for me and Hubs, we definitely wouldn’t be going somewhere special tonight as I am now currently in bed, sneezing very loudly, eyes barely open, and tears continuously falling because of very very bad colds. Was absent yesterday, hubby had to be absent as well to accompany me to the hospital as I was already running a fever. Woke up today feeling better so I went to office, only to go back home after staying an hour in the office because I can barely keep my eyes wide open; my tear-filled eyes can’t take the office lights. Plus, I was sneezing and coughing loudly.

I did give Hubs a red, heart-shaped box of creamy Lindt chocolates, one of my favourite brands. But I can’t have even a piece because my throat is swollen.

Dear St. Valentines, please do hear my plea and take this colds away from our house.

And oh! Have you seen today’s Google doodle? A good reminder that it’s not what can be googled and bought but rather it’s the time spent together that matters most. 🙂 Happy Valentines everyone!

white day

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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.

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Thank you Dhonna and Ghepoi!! 🙂

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**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.