St Valentine's day in Japan

[hugme]

I thought you would all be interested, this is from my friend Wakaha in Japan when I asked about what Valentines day is like there:

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On St. Valentine's day, women give chocolates to men in Japan, not only to the men they are fond of, but also to male co-workers and friends. The strategy of chocolate companies and business, which is to stimulate consumer desire, has created this sort of Valentine culture.

The Mary Chocolate Company http://www.mary.co.jp/mary_fren/engcreation.htm is credited with bringing St. Valentine's Day to Japan in 1958, with the twist that it should be a day for women to give gifts to men. Naturally, this led to the retail industry's creation of "White Day" in March 14th, an occasion for the men to reciprocate all those chocolates they'd been given a month earlier by buying white presents (such as candies, handkerchiefs or panties) for their women.
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Comments

[littlesebastien.livejournal.com]

i prefer the reciprocal march 14th here...
steak & bj day

:)

[crayola511.livejournal.com]

I like this idea of me getting gifts on V instead of the other way around. That Japan is on to something.

[nausved.livejournal.com]

I hate gift exchanges. I'm all for getting rid of Christmas, Valentine's Day, and birthdays altogether.

[lotusflow.livejournal.com]

I was going to make a comment along the lines of the clean version of Steak and a BJ Day, but someone beat me to it.

Anyways, what if a boyfirend or husband gave his girlfriend or wife (or both) panties form a vending machine? Now, *that* would be odd. Vending machines over there sure do make last minute gifts easy, but I'd be awfully suspicious. ;)

I thought you were going to mention the Penis Festival that was featured on Comedy Central a few years ago. Nothing like parading about the streets with a large penis, licking a penis-shaped lollipop that confuses the Western tourists.