I spent most of March travelling for work, and the rest of March travelling for fun, so I did not have time to return the White Day gifts I am expected to return after receiving Valentine's Day gifts. I returned some in early April instead.
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| The big Pocky sticks come individually wrapped. |
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| And they are very big. |
From one woman I got an enormous block of chocolate. I was thinking a lot about what to get her, and in the end I went for giant sized Pocky sticks. And since men are expected to return at least three times as much or as expensive stuff as they received, I bought three huge packs of Pocky sticks.
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| This is the "light snack" that comes for free with the drinks in this bar... not so light. |
Another girl working in the same place also gave me a small Valentine's Day gift. I remembered that she likes the Choco Ball chocolate that is popular here, but I did not remember what flavor she prefers. So I got her one of each. They apparently also come with labyrinth puzzles on the box so you can pass time with them after finishing the chocolate too. She had misspelled my name in Japanese (written a non-existing letter) when she gave me chocolate, so I misspelled her name on the return gift too. She thought that was funny.
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| In Japan, random products come with something called Bell Marks. It can be found on some types of tea, some types of chocolate, some types of shampoo etc. The tea I usually drink at work has Bell Marks on the bottles. The Choco Ball chocolates also have Bell Marks. If elementary school children collect Bell Marks, these can be traded in for a new piano for the school or things like that, so I have been asked by an acquaintance to bring Bell Marks. |
