Happy Valentines Day

Japan has not escaped the clutches of the Valentines Day commercial madness. In fact, the chocolate shops maybe even more frantic than Toys R Us on Christmas eve. In particular people go in for handmade chocolate as the gift, so the shops can make a huge profit shoving some chocolate and cream in a bag with some little heart shaped paper cups and charge three times what the ingredients are worth.

But of course there is always something different about everything in Japan. Instead of reciprocal giving, Valentines Day is for the girls to give chocolate to the boys they like. Then a month later on "White Day", the boys can return the favour...hopefully at twice the value. There is also a problem with "obligatory choco" where young office girls feel obliged to give Valentines gifts to their leery bosses.