Valentine's Day in Japan

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It's been awhile since I did anything, mostly due to the weather - February is traditionally the coldest (and most miserable) time of the year, and this year was no exception: snow, snow, snow! It snowed twice here, which is perhaps higher than average, and the second snow was a record-breaking amount that ended up finishing at the most snowfall in 45 years. Tokyo traditionally does NOT get much snow, due to its positioning on the eastern coast of the country, so the ability to actually remove snow does not exist. As such, it was a slushy, slick, and not very fun few days while we waited for the majority of it to melt. But I did get some photos of the whiteness before it faded away.

The snow also had the dubious timing of our Valentine's Day party, and we ended up getting stuck at the social apartment for the night since the snow and wind were really messing up the majority of the train lines. But that's okay, because we had places to sleep, and had a really fun time with everyone.

Valentine's Day in Japan is a little different from the holiday in the states. Here, it's still couple-themed, but the tradition is for girls to give boys they like chocolates (or sweets) rather than both sexes. The boys' version is in March, called "White Day", where they will do the same back to the girls. I'm always annoyed that the girls have to go first and make ourselves all vulnerable, haha, but it's alright. Kelly hosted a cookie-decorating party, and we all made Valentine cookies! I don't have pictures yet of the ones I gave as a gift, but I think he probably took a picture himself, as he said they were "too cute so he couldn't eat them." HAHA.

Our friend Yoco also gave us a mini-ikebana lesson with red roses and Valentine's flowers, showing us how to make arrangements and helping us out. It was really fun, and the finished product was so beautiful! I'd never done any kind of ikebana work before, but it was interesting to see how much thought goes into the placement of things, color, texture, etc. to make pretty arrangements.

A lot of things here are red themed for the month, there's some "seasonal events" going on, and tomorrow, I'm going ice-skating on what will mostly likely be a heart-shaped ice rink. Hahahaha oh Japan. It should be fun, and I'm very excited! Hopefully there's no more snow in our future... I think we are all over that already. 😉

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