Today was Friday, the last day of the work week and also the last working day before Valentine’s Day. This week I had no Friday classes except my adult class, and even that one only had two students today. Anticipating an easy day I brought in a book to do some pleasure reading.
When teachers started arriving, there was a buzz in the air – something was different today. Then I realized what it was – Valentine’s Day. In Japan, Valentine’s Day is celebrated by the females giving the males chocolate. The guys just sit back and watch it roll in. The payback comes on March 14th, called “White Day” in Japan. Then the boys return the favor by giving white chocolate to the girls that gave them something.
I was certainly happy that it worked out this way – if it was the other way around then I wouldn’t know who to give something to and who not to. Just as this alleviates social pressure for me, it creates a lot of tough pressure for both male and female students at my school.
The girls have to work hard to make candy – I understand that they usually give out homemade candy and chocolates to the ones they REALLY like, and store bought for everyone else. The boys have to sweat about whether they are going to get anything or not. Talking to some of my adult class teachers – their sons had been really disappointed the last couple of years that they didn’t get anything. Ouch!
Miss Yamamoto, Miss Kotera, and Miss Saito all went in together and got some really expensive chocolates for the first year teachers. They put in a nice note (in Japanese) but with Miss Yamamoto’s help I could translate it OK. The chocolates look great – truffles from a confectionery store in Kobe. One of my adult class teachers got me a small box of rum filled chocolates (wow!), and then Miss Yamamoto got me a bottle of wine, too. It’s a bottle of 2000 Rabbit Ridge Zinfandel. I couldn’t believe it! She said that there is a great wine store near Sone (north of the school) and that they had lots of interesting wines there. A while back she had asked me for some wine varietals that Mr. Hayashi might like. I had given her a list like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel. I guess in order to thank me, she got me a bottle too. Now I have a really good California wine for my collection.
She had also picked up a bottle for Mr. Hayashi – I asked her what one she got, and she couldn’t remember the name. She went back to her desk, opened up the bag and pulled out a 1997 Benziger Reserve Merlot!
I almost fell off my chair! I explained my history of having worked there, and she just laughed and laughed. Apparently the store owner had recommended it to her. Now I have to get to that store and check it out. Miss Yamamoto said that she would drive me there sometime after work to see it. Amazing that a wine like that is even in Japan, let alone in my neck of the woods. I can’t imagine what it cost her, but Mr. Hayashi was very happy with it. Mr. Hayashi drinks three liter casks of cheap California wine all the time, so it’s a bit like pearls before swine – but he’ll enjoy this one for sure.
After school ended I had several visitors come in to say hello, and one student even came by to give me some homemade chocolate. It was a second year student that I had talked to (mainly in Japanese) a while back – she was showing me pictures of her family’s new puppy. Anyway, she remembered that and decided to bring me chocolates. Very cool. I wrote down everyone’s name and next month I’ll be on the lookout for some white chocolate to pay back everyone.
Tonight and tomorrow Melanie is having all her girlfriends over to stay, so I’m anticipating a lot of giggling, pillow fights, and Guinness consumption upstairs. As for me I’m just trying to get over this cold – I’ve taken enough Vitamin C to start to worry about toxicity levels. I’m downloading Survivor now, and hopefully I can watch that this evening and then hit the hay early.
