It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow. I was thinking about
having a singles’ party and inviting all my single friends over to make
chocolate together. But in the end I decided to have all the chocolate to
myself.
After slaving away in the kitchen for over 3 hours and
trying to make sense of this new truffle recipe, blueberry milk chocolate
coated with dark chocolate, now I still smell of chocolate. I don’t think I can
stand the sight of chocolate for at least another month.
In Japan, we celebrate Valentine’s Day very
differently from any other countries. Girls have to give chocolate to all the
guys they know, including their male colleagues (giri-choco, which means
“courtesy chocolate”) and their partners (honmei-choco, which means
“true-feeling chocolate”). And then on White day, March 14th, guys
will return the favor by giving something more expensive to the girls.
Japanese love all the western holidays, Christmas,
Halloween, and of course Valentine’s. Now they not only embrace Valentine’s Day
whole-heartedly, but they have also made it completely their own.
There is no surprise that White Day was cooked up
by the Japanese confectionery industry. It was originally called Marshmallow
Day, but then soon it became big and marshmallows were just not profitable
enough. Thus white chocolate, white lingerie, white jewelry followed. Now all
industries benefit from this beautiful day.
OK, business talk again. Honestly I’ve been
wondering why we still don’t have Easter here in Japan. It’s such a no-brainer!
Rabbits are cute and Japanese adore everything cute. And who can sell chocolate
bunnies better than Professor Usagi?
Please contact me if you are interested in
investing my (yet another) new business. Let’s start making some serious yen!
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