Happy Valentine`s Day everyone!!!

There are no words to express how much I HATE Valentine`s Day in Japan. I mean, who in the world thought up the idea that only MEN get presents!?!?! Actually, I know the answer to that question thanks to a very informative documentary on the subject I watched last year. Apparently many years ago (can`t remember if it was before WWII or just afterwards) , sales of chocolate in Japan weren`t doing so well and the CEO of one of the big chocolate companies (who we will call Mr Morinaga just for the sake of argument) was visiting the US. He must have made the trip around this time of year because he witnessed the flurry of gift-giving that surrounds V-Day and decided that this "festival" would be a perfect opportunity to increase chocolate sales. SOOO a monster was born. Mr Morinaga marketed the idea of women buying chocolate for the man they love and these days it has got carried away into ridiculous proportions. There is chocolate EVERYWHERE you look leading up to V-Day and it makes me sad that none of it is going to be for me!!! Silly thing is, that this being Japan, they figured "ok, we have to find a way for men to return the gift" (because god forbid a gift gets given without one being given back) so the biggest Cookie company came up with the idea of waiting a month, calling the day "White Day" and making it the day when guys have the reciprocate the gifts they were given (preferably with cookies...) This horrendous commercial extravanganza has made me very bitter about the loss of a day I used to look forward to with trepidation.. would I get any anonymous cards? Would I get a present from a secret admirer!?!? A few years ago I got THE BEST Valentine`s day present ever when a guy I was friends with (we met on the internet while I was living in Kanoya, had one date in London the day before he got sent to Saudi Arabia for work while I was on holiday back home and kept in touch regularly after that..) This guy decided to surprise me and sent me a HUGE bunch of red roses. They were absolutely stunning and I was so touched!! It was possibly the coolest and most romantic thing that anyone has ever done for me. :-) Makes you wonder why I didn`t end up marrying him doesn`t it!?!? (Well that is a story for another day involving lots of different countries and bad timing...) Makes me sad that a day when I should be celebrating the love in my life in commemoration of St Valentine who gave his life because he believed that Roman soldiers should be able to marry their sweethearts has been turned into a big commercial chocolate fest.. would I be less bitter if the day involved me GETTING chocolate rather than having to give it!? Very possibly but that would only be a temporary chocolate high and then I would go back to being bitter and cynical! ;-)