Valentine's Day...Japan style.

In Japan, Valentine's Day is kind of the opposite of the States. Women give gifts to men (usually chocolate) and women get pretty much diddly-squat. But, a month after Valentine's Day is White Day, which is when men give return gifts of chocolate to women. So, for the past month or so, stores have been filled with chocolate and other Valentine's Day type things for women to choose from for those special men in their lives. And if words can't express just how much they love those men, there's plenty of Engrish to help them out:

The small print says: "Valentine's Day is an important day in year once. Please spend happy Valentine's day."

"Have a nice day! Your smile is so beautiful. I will give you a heartful present."

"a first-class cook seasoned these dishes with advanced techniques and highest class materials. please enjoy this 'tastiness.'"

And if that special man doesn't like chocolate, have no fear. There are other options available for that perfect Valentine's Day gift:

How about a bowl of Japanese type food with heart-shaped...meat? Fish shavings? No one can be sure.

Or maybe some deep-fried Valentine's Day goodness? Maybe potatoes...but probably fish. This is Japan, after all.

And of course, the stores waste no time in reminding men that they own their special women big time in a month:

This was on the back of a Valentine's Day sign.

So, on a personal note, my Japanese Valentine's Day was pretty good. I started the day with a video Skype chat with Michelle and Laura, which was awesome. We ate together (breakfast for me and dinner for them) and caught up on things.

Then I headed to work. There are no adult classes this week so I had a bit of a vacation. I only had two interviews with potential students the whole day, so I spent most of my time organizing my room and preparing for next week.

After work, I went home, ate dinner, and then some students and my manager came over to hang out. I haven't really had many visitors to my apartment yet, so it was really fun to be a host.

My friend Mallory back in the States sent me a package last week and included some Valentine's Day candy, which I shared with my guests. They were very intrigued by the candy bracelets (apparently not very popular in Japan):

Thanks, Mallory!

Michelle and Laura got back online and we chatted with them for a while. It was really fun to introduce them to some of my Japan people and chat about Japan and the States:

I hope your Valentine's Day was great, too! Happy (belated) Valentine's Day from Japan!

Kenichi, Yukako, Michiko, Yousuke (who has hayfever, hence the mask), and me

"lovers, keep on the road you're on; soldiers, you've got to soldier on..."

Tonight was the Coldplay concert!

I got up at 8 am (ugh) and did the shower-make-up-hair-breakfast-coffee thing and met Hiromi at Fujieda Station at 9:40 am. We took the local train to Shizuoka and had some more coffee before meeting up with Kengo at the bus station.

About a month ago, I taught a lesson to my co-teachers that mentioned line dancing, and specifically, the songs "Achy Breaky Heart" and "Watermelon Crawl." They could hardly believe that these songs even existed and we have talked about them and line dancing ever since that lesson. We want to have a line dancing party with our students in the near future. Well, since I knew we would have three hours to kill on the bus today, I downloaded those two very American country songs and put them on my iPod so my co-teachers could finally hear them.

"Look! Kengo's actually listening to Achy Breaky Heart!"

Kengo pensively listened to the lyrics and proclaimed them "cool"

After we had our fun with country music, Kengo and Hiromi very patiently helped me study Japanese. Once we got to Shinjuku, we had some fish and chips at an Irish pub and called Yusaku to find out what time to meet up with him.

Shinjuku - a very cool (and very crowded) city

We met up with Yusaku at Shinjuku Station and took the local train to the arena. We discovered a John Lennon Museum in the arena, but we didn't have time to go in, so we just said a quick hello to John and were on our way.

We headed into the arena, stopping for some photos along the way.

Then it was concert time!

The concert was awesome! Coldplay put on a great show and their music is really powerful live. I had a great time and downloaded a bunch of songs as soon as I got back.

We took the local train back to Tokyo and then took the shinkansen from there to Shizuoka.

Yusaku provided us with some candy for the way home

It was a tiring but really great day. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my co-teachers and seeing a great concert in Tokyo.

Oh, and P.S...tonight's concert will be on MTV! They are starting a new show called "MTV World Stage" which will feature concerts from all over the world. Coldplay's Tokyo concert will be the first one featured on the show on Feb. 27. Check it out!

I got to use a real oven this time.

Today, after my Japanese lesson in Shimizu (I started taking lessons last week...it's rough), I went over to my manager's apartment to make Valentine's Day cookies. She has an actual oven, so I was excited about that. Amie, the new foreign teacher at Shimizu, came along as well for some baking fun.

Michiko (my manager) and Keiko, my Japanese teacher

Michiko wanted to learn how to bake sugar cookies and peanut butter cookies with Hershey's Kisses on top, so we made two batches of each. Needless to say...

there were a lot of cookies.

And, Keiko made us some awesome boiled gyoza to keep our strength up:

The cookies turned out great and the gyoza were scrumtralescent. Michiko and Keiko couldn't believe how much sugar and butter we used for the cookies, but Amie and I told them that that's how it's done in the States!

These are a few of my favorite things.

So I've been homesick lately. But, that doesn't mean that there aren't great things about my Japanese life. Here are a few of them:

On clear days, I can catch a glimpse of Fuji-san on my way to church or on the train:

There are four second-hand stores in Fujieda. That in and of itself is incredible. The last two Sundays, my co-worker, Hiromi, and I visited them got some good deals on cute clothes. And during our second trip to the stores, I introduced Hiromi to an old friend:





That's right, Japan is now home to Big Boy. We didn't actually eat there because Hiromi wasn't too sure about the menu, but I did say a quick hello and grabbed a hug before we moved on.

On Monday, one of my students, Andy, invited me to Omaezaki, a beach about an hour from Fujieda. Kathi, a member of the church I've been going to (Andy introduced me to it about two months ago) came with us, too. Since I have never made it all the way over to the west coast of the States, it was my first time to see the Pacific Ocean (except from an airplane, but that doesn't really count). The weather was cool but still sunny and it was so good to be at the beach. I am definitely a beach person:

Andy

Kathi

playing some golf

After the beach, we headed to the fish market so Andy could pick up something for dinner:

mmmm, seaweed

The market included an ice cream shop that featured fish flavored gelato (wrong in so many ways) - which, Andy informed me, is their most popular flavor. Of course.

But, one of my most favorite things is coming home from a long day at work, putting on my pajamas, and stretching out on my hot carpet (like an electric blanket for my floor) to watch some American shows online and enjoy some royal milk tea:

cheers.