Valentine's Day, Take Two (2005-03-14)
Japanese are big on giving gifts. If you move to a new place, you need to greet your neighbors bearing gifts. If you visit someone in the hospital, it is rude not to bring some gifts (mostly in the form of cash). When one returns from a trip, it is almost obligatory for the traveler to bring souvenirs to family and friends. But just as important as gift-giving in this culture, returning the favor is also essential in most cases. Hence the reason for today's necessity.
Japanese call it the White Day, and it's simply Valentine's Day,
take two. Those who received chocolates last month are pretty
much obliged to return the favor today. Not that chocolates is
the only criteria in this equation, but Japanese people only associate
chocolates or chocolate cakes with Valentine's Day; other candies are
almost never given. Thus the market is once again saturated with
the same kind of gift-boxed chocolates we saw a month ago.
Supermarkets also set up special sections to sell all sorts of
ingredients and materials for homemade chocolates and chocolate cakes.
I guess chocolate shop owners would be pretty happy about
White Day. Merchandises left over from Valentine's Day get
another month to make it out the door before they expire, thus
minimizing wastage. And what better people to eat
chocolates than Japanese? These people can gobble up all the
chocolates they want on Valentine's Day, White Day, Red Day, Green Day,
Brown Day, Sunday, Everyday, Doris Day, and not a single person will
ever get fat.
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