“Valentine” done different

The beauty of being in another country is seeing how that culture celebrates holidays. In Japan, they don’t celebrate Christmas, but they have some of the biggest Christmas displays in the entire world. They love celebrating the decorations and idea of Christmas and will go to the extreme with lights and themes.

For Valentine’s Day, they do things a little different than us Americans and I find it very interesting.

For starters, it’s Valentine Day. No s. Walking down the street; through all the stores and malls, everywhere it says Valentine. I thought this was typical Japanese translation, missing out on a letter here or there, but a Japanese woman explained exactly how they celebrate this day.

The woman makes chocolates for the man she loves. On Valentine day, she gives over the chocolates to the man and declares her love to him. This is the time the woman reveals she in fact loves the man (sometimes to his surprise and maybe delight). The man takes the chocolates and decides if he wants to return her love or deny her, answering with a yes or no. If he chooses to say he loves her; returning her affection, the man then buys her a gift that’s worth more than her chocolates and gives it to her with his answer. He doesn’t have to say yes..

The woman every single year is the one that buys the man chocolates. She gives Valentine gifts to her son, to her husband, to her father, to her male co workers; and when it’s a little girl, she gives it to her brother, her male teacher, her male classmates, and to her father.

Do you get the theme?

The women are required to buy for the men in every circumstance. Not the man.

Interesting, right? How nice would it be to be the man here?

Today, on Valentine’s day, it’s snowing a lot. A lot a lot! I can only imagine a lot of Valentine’s dates have been postponed due to the weather and rolling blackouts that keep happening. G-man has to stay on the ship tonight and tomorrow night, so there won’t be anything special going on here. It’ll just be me, staying warm under the blanket, hoping the power stays on so I can have a little entertainment with Netflix or maybe a book.

We went to Tokyo all this week and got to see Mount Fuji. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw we caught a rare glimpse of the “shy mountain”, at the very last moment of us being there. The tour bus was pulling away when the tour guide gasped and exclaimed Mt. Fuji was visible. We all rushed to the window for a glimpse and it was breathtaking. I can’t wait to show the pictures from that day. It was incredibly hazy and the glare was so strong it hurt our eyes, but it was beautiful, nonetheless.

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Last Saturday, a storm came in and gave us over 12 inches of snow. The most snow fall in this region in 45 years! It shut down the airports and everything else. Not to mention the power that night. It’s safe to say the power went out close to 30 times! After the 4th, we finally decided to start playing a card game with the candles at the ready. It turned out to be one of my favorite nights here…and not just because I won every game either.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you! And have a lovely weekend!

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