Way past White Day, but still

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.

The big Pocky sticks come individually wrapped.

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.

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.

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.

More Chocolate

When I visited Ropossa before Valentine's Day, a girl working there said that she would be handing out chocolate on Friday and Saturday. Since I work on Fridays and Saturdays, I cannot come here then, I said. She said she would put one chocolate gift away for me.

When I stopped by Ropossa to have dinner recently, she gave me a Valentine's Day gift that had a name tag with what was reasonably close to my name in Japanese on it. There were some extra lines there that the other Japanese guests thought were funny, and they kept making fun of her the whole evening (for not being able to write Japanese).

I was also given a bottle of sugar, for unclear reasons.

Giant chocolate (and zombie chocolate)

All my foreigner friends say :"That is one huge piece of chocolate" when they see this photo, and all my Japanese friends say: "You look good in sunglasses" when they see it (despite the sunglasses being bought in the dollar store for 1 dollar to use in a magic trick).

Yesterday I received a huge chocolate bar. Really huge. If you open it up, it contains the same Meiji milk chocolate as the normal sized chocolate bars they sell that look the same except smaller. It just contains a very much larger amount of chocolate.

This was given to me by a friend who every year says "I cannot believe you never get any chocolate at Valentine's Day" (which very many people say to me). This year, I have received quite a lot of chocolate though, so maybe my 10th Valentine in Japan is finally when everything changes and I get treated like the Japanese men around me.

Anyway, my friend said the same thing last year, and I said that I guess I am just very unpopular. She said she was sure that was not the case, but then again not even she herself gave me any chocolate last year... despite us having that discussion a few days before Valentine's Day. So I am not sure why she is so surprised that everyone else does what she does.

This year, she gave me this huge block of chocolate, though. And a small box of chocolate that tastes of strawberries and of mochi (gooey rice cakes made from sweet rice). I also got a small piece of chocolate promoting the zombie anime Francesca.

Giri-choko from our secretary

In Japan, they have the concept of "giri choko" ("duty chocolate", 義理チョコ). This means that women have to give chocolate our cookies (home baked) to all their colleagues on Valentine's Day. Men do nothing in particular on Valentine's Day, thought there is the concept of "gyaku choko" (逆チョコ, reverse/opposite chocolate), which means that a man gives chocolate to a woman (the opposite of normal behavior in Japan).

Since I work at a university, there are very few women around. Since I work at the computer science department, there are in fact very very few women around. There is rumored to be a female professor somewhere, but she works so much I have only seen her once in the 9 years I worked here. And I even worked on the same floor as her for 3 years... There are a few secretaries, but they are located in a different building, so they do not give any chocolate to me. We do have our own secretary, though, and she provided some chocolate for us this year. Very nice.

Valentine Party at One Star Bar

Chocolate fondue with tomatoes and bread...

Yesterday there was a party for "lonely people" (on account of it being Valentine's Day soon) in a place called One Star Bar, where one of my friends works. I was asked to do a magic show there, and there were other performances too. There was also some light food, and unlimited alcohol from 18:30 to 23:30, the common way to have parties in Japan.

There was a set of amateur karaoke, where different people came on stage and sang songs of their own choosing. There was no karaoke machine with music and lyrics, instead there were two guys playing guitars (and you had to remember the lyrics yourself). The quality of the singers was very high!

Later, three women forming the group Amuse entertained us with different types of songs for half an hour or so. They were great. They played piano and flute, and sang. They covered a wide range of music, with musical pieces from the Phantom of the opera and Les Miserables, anime and computer game songs, pop songs, and much more.

I did about 30 minutes of magic on the stage. It went over very well. My friend helped by giving me a very nice introduction where he explained that I "had come all the way from Sweden just for this event" and things like that. It helped set the mood to "not too serious", so my funny tricks were properly appreciated. Afterwards I was also asked to visit some of the tables and do some more magic for people who said they wanted to see some more.

Since it was a Valentine's party everyone also got some chocolate. So my Valentine's chocolate count for 2015 is through the roof compared to previous years, and it is not even Valentine's Day yet!

LEGO blocks made from chocolate?

A girl I know gave me an early Valentine's Day chocolate gift. It was chocolate in very bright colors, shaped like "nano blocks" (a LEGO block clone). And the boxes claim that you will be able to build different models too. We were both wondering how that would work, since chocolate seems a bit brittle.

It turns out that you get block shaped chocolate to eat and a bag of plastic nano blocks to build the models with, The chocolate is only block shaped on the top, so they cannot be used to build models, sadly.

I assembled the models and I think I made them correctly. I did end up with about 50% of the pieces unused, which makes me a bit unsure... did I miss building some part of the models?

Early Valentine

In Japan, all women are expected to give chocolate to 1) people the find attractive and want to date, 2) anyone they are dating, 3) anyone who works at the same place as they do and who is male, 4) anyone they know who is male, 4) their friends (this is optional).

Everyone in Japan tells me they get huge amounts of chocolate at Valentine day every year, but I never get anything. This year, someone already gave me a Valentine chocolate gift. It was so big that with only this one gift, I think this is the year with the most Valentine's gifts so far for me! A great start.

Of course, on "White day" (March 14), you have to give back something that is at least three times more valuable to anyone you got chocolate from, so receiving lots of things is not only positive. My good looking friends complain to me that they have to spend several weeks travelling around with a huge truck full of chocolate just to return the favor to everyone they got chocolate from a month before...  A problem I have never had to deal with.

Sad and lonely Valentine's Day (again)

Possibly partly my chocolate

In Japan, Valentine's Day is huge. It is also a bit backwards compared to Western countries. Women are obliged to give chocolate to all male co-workers. This is called "giri-choco", from "duty" (giri) and "chocolate", since they are duty bound to distribute this chocolate. Home made cookies are also OK.

Women can also give chocolate to men they are interested in, to indicate that "I like you".

If you receive chocolate, you are obliged to return the favor on "White Day", March 14. You are also supposed to return a gift at least three times as expensive as what you got. For giri-choco you have a giri to return the gift. For "I like you" chocolate, returning something means "I like you too", I am told.

The Valentine exhibits in stores around town are bigger than the Christmas exhibits in December, so this is a huge thing. Every year, and this year was no exception, well meaning Japanese try to explain this culture to me. They also always tell me: "As a foreigner, you will get huge amounts of chocolate from all the women around you, since Japanese women are fascinated with foreigners".

Every year, I end up getting very little or no chocolate at all. This year was the worst so far, with no chocolate at all received. There was a small plate of chocolate on the desk of one of my colleagues, and when he was not there, the rest of us figured "this is probably for everyone, right?" and dug in. So I did have some chocolate but it was more like "stealing" than "receiving a gift".

Not my chocolate

One of my magician friends had lots of customers dropping by our magic bar just to give him chocolate. He got too much, so he let me eat some of his chocolate.

Presents from Hakodate!

Presents!

Last week, an acquaintance from Hakodate was in Sapporo and she and her friend stopped by our magic bar. It was Wednesday (so not one of the days I would normally be working) but I happened to be in the magic bar anyway since our other magic bar was super booked and one magician from my bar was their helping out (and I was in our bar helping out since one guy was gone).

I tried a "Chinese chicken" burger, which was pretty good

Anyway, they brought hamburgers from the famous Hakodate hamburger chain "Lucky Pierrot" and chocolate of the well known but also very much available in Sapporo brand "Big Thunder". I also got a bag of Valentine's chocolates!

Valentine's chocolate box

Heart shaped senbei covered in four types of chocolate (maccha taste, strawberry taste, normal chocolate, and white chocolate).

Valentine Chocolate!

I almost never get any chocolate on Valentine's Day, despite lots of people assuring me every year that "all foreigners get truckloads of chocolate in Japan" since foreigners are so popular with Japanese women. Apparently all foreigners except me. I would not care so much if it wasn't for the fact that every year there are so many very persistent people trying to convince me I will get huge amounts of chocolate since everyone does (and in the end everyone except me does), haha.

This year, I got no less than two pieces of giri-chocolate (which does not mean you are popular, but at least it is something, so I was happy), though none of them were given to me on Valentine's Day (actually meeting on the day in question was too much work, I was told).

In a very rare occasion, this year I did actually get chocolate on the actual Valentine's Day! I dropped by our magic bar on my way home and one of the customers there gave a piece of chocolate to each of the magicians present. Good thing I stopped by!

Valentine Dinner

Dinner ("hanbaagu")

On Valentine's Day I of course had nothing to do, but I managed to find a friend who also had nothing to do. She being a girl and Japanese would normally be expected to give chocolate to men she work with or men she like or men she consider her friends. I got no chocolate, so I guess I do not qualify in any category. She is a lot of fun, though, so it was a great evening.

Dessert (chocolate cake and cheese cake) served on what turned out not to be a chess board

She has a tendency to suddenly do slightly crazy things. This time we ended up sitting at a table that looked a lot like a chess board. She was convinced that it was a chess board and that there must be chess pieces somewhere nearby. There was a small wooden box placed on top of pedestal nearby, and she figured it must contain chess pieces. So she walked over there and took the box. She commented that it was very light, unexpectedly light for something containing a chess set. Also, it did not open. She tried to open it for awhile but had no luck. About then, the waitress came by to take our order, so my friend asked if the box was perhaps just a piece of decoration in the cafe. It turned out the answer was yes, so we put the box back on the pedestal... Luckily, I am a foreigner so blaming me usually works. No one expects foreigners to know how to behave or to comprehend simple things like "you should not play around with the decorations in a restaurant", haha.

Cute chocolate

Cute chocolate

I like the products of this chocolate maker. Once many years ago, one of my friends gave me a chocolate frog from this company for Valentine's Day (or more accurately almost one month after Valentine's Day, just in time to qualify for the "you have to return the gift 5-fold" White Day; March 14). The more recent 5 years have seen a distinct lack of chocolate of this type, or almost any type, actually.

More giri-chodolate

Giri-chocolate from our secretary

Our secretary  gave me "giri choco" ("duty chocolate") this year too. Women are expected to give men chocolate on Valentine's Day. They should give chocolate to any man they like, but they should also give chocolate to all the men they work with. This type of chocolate is called giri-choco, to set it apart from chocolate you give to people that you actually like. I usually do not receive giri-chocolate either, since apparently no one thinks they are duty bound to give me chocolate. Either I don't count as a man, or I don't count as a human being, perhaps.

Our secretary thinks I help her a lot with difficult English and whatnot at work, so she gave me chocolate last year. She gave me some chocolate this year too, and she said: "Since I am about twice your age, I guess I do not have to tell you that this is giri-choco". But it was perhaps good that she did clarify that, since the seal stuck on the wrapping was very romantic: "You mean the world to me", "Your love brings meaning to my life", "Kiss me!", "Be mine!", "You are everything to me", "Hug me!", and "I will love you forever" sound less like "I am obliged to give chocolate" and more like "I like you chocolate"...

Presumably the shop she bought the chocolate in sticks these on every box, which considering most chocolate passed around is giri-chocolate to people you do not really like that much might not be a great idea. But as my Japanese friends tell me, since it is English no one reads it anyway. And if you do read it, no one understands what it says...

Valentine giri chocolate!

On Friday nights we have a girl working in our magic bar. She does not do magic (though she did do some magic one time a long time ago when her colleagues from her day job stopped by) but she makes drinks and does the dishes.

In Japan, women are expected to give chocolate or home baked cakes or cookies to all the men that they work with. It is a Valentine's day thing. In Japan, women are supposed to give chocolate to men that they like as a sign that they like them. They also have to give "giri-choco" ("giri" means duty or something you have to do) to all their male colleagues, especially anyone above them in the hierarchy.

I usually never get any chocolate for Valentine's (despite this being my 8th Valentine's Day in Japan), but every year many Japanese people come up to me and tell me I will receive huge amounts of chocolate because all foreigners are so popular with the ladies in Japan. Apparently all foreigners except me. I also do not get this "giri-choco", in large part because there are no women at my place of work. My previous boss for some reason always gets huge amounts of "giri-choco", so there must be women around here somewhere, though.

Last year, our secretary did give me giri-choco after I had helped her with a lot of English language work that needed to be done (explaining strange Japanese rules to important foreign visiting professors etc.). This year, the girl in our magic bar already (almost a week before Valentine's Day) gave me a chocolate cheese cake tart. Which was "giri-choco" (not "I like you choco"), and delicious.

Valentine's chocolate? Pity chocolate

In Japan, Valentine's Day is celebrated by women giving chocolate to men they are interested in. They also have to give chocolate to anyone they work with (giri-choco ("duty chocolate")).

Every year, any number of people tell me about this Japanese custom (that I already know of) and they tell me that as a foreigner I can expect to get huge amounts of chocolate since many Japanese women love foreigners.

Every year, I get more or less zero chocolate... I do not even get giri-choco. I get laughed at by 7 year old kids. I get pity from my professor at work who thinks I get sad amounts of chocolate. I almost get mentally scarred, haha. And it does not help that people come every year to tell me how much chocolate foreigners get and how popular foreigners (apparently, everyone except me) are with the women.

This year, I already got some chocolate though! A Japanese and female friend gave me fancy chocolate (or, actually dried fruits dipped in chocolate) today. Today is not Valentine's Day, but she said it was Valentine's chocolate so I guess it still counts. She also said, and I quote: "You being you will certainly get no real Valentine's chocolate, so I felt sorry for you and bought this for you." Which, coincidentally, is almost exactly what a Swedish female friend said when she gave me chocolate 4 years ago, haha.

But the chocolate was very good, so getting chocolate out of pity is still good! Not sure why the ribbon around the package has a skull, or if this is a warning/bad sign of some sort, though, haha.

She also gave me a pastry of some sort that she herself got at a wedding yesterday (in Japan, the bride and groom give gifts to all the guests at their wedding...).

Reverse chocolate

In Japan, Valentine's Day is a fairly big event. Women are expected to give chocolate or home baked chocolate cakes to men they are fond of. On "White Day" (14th of March), men then return the favor, and you have to give (at least three times as much as you received) chocolate to the women that gave you chocolate. Originally, women gave chocolate to men they liked to say "I like you, let's become a couple!", and if the man returned chocolate on White Day, it meant "OK!".

The custom has evolved, and women are now also expected to give "giri choco" (giri means "duty" or something you have to do) to all the men at their work place etc. It seems like quite a lot, and most women I have talked to say it is a pain and can cost quite a lot of money.

There is also something called "gyaku choco", gyaku meaning "opposite". This is chocolate that a man gives to a woman on Valentine's Day. So even though you are a man and should just be receiving piles of chocolate, you are giving something, to a woman no less, so it is the opposite of how things should be. Today, I found "gyaku choco" being sold in one of the 12 convenience stores located within a few minutes walking distance from my home. It is so opposite that all the text on the package is mirrored! I might be able to use this for some magic trick or something, and it was cheap, so I bought four of them... Sadly, it is only the box that is mirrored. All the text on the chocolate inside is like the normal boxes.

By the way, I usually get zero pieces of chocolate on Valentine's Day. This means that no one likes me, and no friend or colleague things I am worth chocolate either. In fact, even those years that someone took pity on me and I got something, I got so little that my professor said "That is really really sad" when he heard how little chocolate I got (he is married and still gets huge amounts, apparently), and I get ridiculed by 10 year old boys that also get much more than I do! In a zoo I was asked by small boys how much chocolate I got, and said "nothing". They asked if I did not have any female friends at all?! I said, these two women sitting next to me here are friends enough that we took the bus all the way to this zoo (2 hour trip) together. The kids thought they were very cold hearted towards me, but my friends did not seem to take the hint...

This year will be my seventh Valentine in Japan (though I have only been here five and a half years). It looks like it will be one more traumatizing Valentine this year too...