Valentine Day

It is about three weeks before Valentine Day but in Japan you can feel the atmosphere of this day coming, just as you walk in the city, department stores, grocery stores, you will find these beautifully wrapped boxes of chocolates on display.    Unlike in other countries, where Valentine Day is considered to be a day for expressing love, giving gifts to your loved ones, from man to woman or vice versa, in Japan Valentine Day is the day for women to give a box of chocolates to their loved ones.....  well, not only that! actually in Japan we have what we call "giri chocolates" (= obligation chocolates) on Valentine Day.    

On Japanese Valentine Day women are obligated to the custom of giving chocolates to male colleaques, subordinates or seniors.   Some women do not like the custom, but if they do not give, they may be considered unfriendly, or even worse they could get discriminated by their male colleaques or seniors for being considered stingy or cold.

A few weeks after Valentine Day, Japanese have the White Day (March 14th), where the men are obliged to return the Valentine gesture, by giving the ladies a gift.    The gift can be anything but normally the value should be equivalent to what he received.   At work it is also a custom for these men to pool the money together and buy one gift that represents their gratitude.

For couples Valentine day sometimes involves more than just the gift giving.   They spend time together dining, staying in a hotel, watching a movie....  nevertheles this is the day when woman is the one in charge of giving gifts to the man, not the other way around.