In Japan, Valentine's Day works a little differently than in the West. For starters only girls give chocolates. They give it to their friends - tomochoco. They give it to their bosses - girichoco (literally obligation chocolate.) And they give it to their lovers/potential lovers. Or in my case they give it to their old men friends who sometimes pay for them at karaoke and asked that I give them chocolate on Valentine's Day. I did but with the caveat that I got something on White Day.
Say what? What the heck is White Day? you ask.
Japanese men get one month to decide if the chocolate offering in February was to their liking and return the gesture, although usually with cookies rather than chocolates. So at my English class on Wednesday night I came home with four boxes of chocolates and cookies from my lovely friends Toshio, Nagata-san, Clinton and Bob (yeah, those aren't their real names.) I don't have to buy cookies for...at least a week.
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