Into the Land of the Rising Sun: "DO YOU BELIEVE IN FOREVER LOVE?"

-Written by one of my students on her Valentine's Day card.

And now we come to my least favorite holiday of the year, Valentine's Day, a day to make single people feel sad and alone, and people in relationships feel the stress of having to make a suitably romantic and memorable gesture. The one upside is that it is socially acceptable to eat obscene amounts of chocolate, and no one blinks at the grocery store when you're seen buying a basket full of Mars products. Little do they know that I have no intention of sharing this bounty.

Of course Japan would eagerly adopt a holiday devoted to pink, red, romance, pageantry, hearts and candies. The cute things that sicken even the least jaded of us delight this populace. Valentine's Day is a KAWAII (Cute) EXPLOSION!!! But because this is Japan, they've added their own ritualistic spin. February 14th is Valentine's Day, and women present chocolates (bought or homemade) to men: fathers, brothers, coworkers, boyfriends, husbands, etc. Giving homemade chocolate is a big deal, because it signifies that the recipient is your "only love." Indeed, chocolate is divided into two camps: courtesy chocolate vs. chocolate of love. But the fun doesn't stop there! On March 14th is White Day, when men reciprocate by giving gifts to all the women who presented them with chocolate. Their gifts can be chocolate, flowers, jewelry, and other tokens. The rule of thumb is that the men's gifts should be roughly 3x the value of whatever the women bestowed upon them.

Korea also celebrates "Black Day" on April 14th, where boys and girls who received no gifts on either Valentine's or White Day get together and eat noodles with black bean sauce. Now that's a party I can get behind.

My Valentine's haul this year- 98% of it made by hand by my students. It won't last until morning.

FROM THE CLASSROOM

My second years are working on a commercial or advertisement for a product of their choosing. "Madam Donut" features a collection of leopard print, tofu, and collagen donuts. Thinking this was a mistranslation by an electronic dictionary, I asked what they thought "collagen" meant. "You know, it makes you young and beautiful." When I argued that collagen can't be ingested, they blinked and replied, "It's a magic donut."

MR. SANDMAN

Last weekend I went to sunakake matsuri, a small, local sand throwing festival. Ten rounds of sand throwing take place; the ritual supposedly has something to do with fertility. Village volunteers dress in protective gear ("They look like Klansmen," said our Kiwi compatriot), and then use long, narrow shovels to scoop up sand and fling it into the crowd. The crowd, meanwhile, busily flings handfuls of sand at the volunteers with the shovels ("This is rather cathartic," said the Kiwi.). The gamut and ingenuity of people's protective great was something to behold: rain suits, ponchos, hats, plastic bags worn over the head, galloshes, swim goggles, chemistry goggles, face masks, ski masks...Below are some photos.