Valentine's Day in Tokyo

A friend once told me that Japan loves events. Of course, this month of February focused on Valentine's Day. Pocky suddenly came out with ridiculously sounding names that made me scratch my head for a while (with a few giggles here and there). Okaecy, Yorocky, Ganbacky, Sukky, Lovecky, Giricky, Tomocky, Papacky... 

I obviously had to ask what this was about. So, apparently, these are simple messages for whoever is going to receive them. For example, Ganbacky is "gambatte" (something like, "do your best!"), Yorocky is "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" (there's no direct translation for this phrase but it's something like "please be nice to me"), Tomocky is for "tomodachi" ("friend"), and Sukky is for "suki"(could be "like" or "love" although I'm not sure why there's also a Lovecky box). Oh, there's also a Thanky, but that one's pretty self-explanatory.

More interesting though is is how Valentine's Day is celebrated on this side of the world.
I grew up watching movies and witnessing guys declaring their love to girls with flowers, teddy bears, chocolates and maybe even a love song. Here, however, it's the opposite: the girls are the ones in charge of giving (or making) chocolates. There's another holiday on March 14th called "White Day" when it's the guys' turn to give presents to the ladies.

I took a stroll for a while today to see if there was anything interesting going on in lieu of Love Day. Tokyo loves dressing up, and maybe I expected a lot of couple shirts today or a lot of hearts or maybe even Cupid, but the only thing out of the ordinary was a parade of people wearing matching shirts and carrying balloons that say "I always want love". 

I wonder how White Day is gonna be like. We'll see in a month!

Well, anyway, love shouldn't be flashy. And everyday should be love day. But on the same breath, I don't think there's anything wrong with celebrating this holiday.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Spread love all around and always remember to be a blessing to others. :)