Valentine’s Day
Looking for a way to revolutionize the stale traditions of Japanese Valentine’s Day, Mr. Sato believes he has found the ultimate gift.
Takoyaki, Japan’s ever-popular street food gets a sweet gourmet makeover in time for Valentine’s Day.
Commuter train with special heart-motif straps and box seats starts service in time for Valentine’s Day.
Your significant other not big on sweets? Then these udon noodles filled with a lot of “heart” may be the perfect treat this Valentine’s Day!
Snow White and the Wicked Queen cosplay is now complete with this specially grown black “poison apple”.
What happens when renowned Kyoto tea makers are inspired by fine French chocolates? You get stunning and mouth-watering sweets like these!
From chocolates to primate “poop”, fans of Shabani the handsome gorilla have a lot to look forward to this Valentine’s Day.
Carry on the Christmas spirit of gift-giving and start planning for Valentine’s Day early with this naughty outfit.
With retail outlets pushing seasonal holiday merchandise earlier and earlier every year, it’s perhaps not too surprising that there are already signs of next year’s goodies.
Japan has a lot of unique customs, and not all of them make sense to newcomers. Eating fried chicken on Christmas Eve, anyone? How about the weird ritual of girls giving chocolate to guys on Valentine’s Day (do guys really like chocolate more than we girls do?).
But it turns out that there are plenty of customs that even Japanese people think are a waste of time. Here’s the top seven worst offenders, and why they are so annoying…
If you love sweets — chocolate in particular — Japan in the weeks before Valentine’s Day is definitely a great place to be. Ever since chocolate makers in Japan managed to make it a widespread tradition for women to give chocolates to men on Valentine’s Day, it’s become an annual event to see chocolates being sold at shops everywhere starting in late January, with numerous special promotions and appearances by “celebrity chocolatiers” to heighten the excitement leading up to the big V-day.
Yes, for chocolate lovers, it’s a blissful time of year — there’s nothing quite like stepping into a department store and seeing a huge space filled with chocolates of all shapes and sizes while being surrounded by the rich, earthy scent of cacao. But now that Valentine’s Day is over, we may be developing a case of the post-Valentine’s blues, so to console ourselves, we’ve put together a collection of photos showcasing some of the most memorable chocolate items we saw this Valentine’s season in Japan.
Japan likes to celebrate Valentine’s Day by women taking the first step and giving a gift of chocolate to the men in their life (whether they see them in a romantic or platonic light), and for the guys to reciprocate a month later on March 14, or White Day, as it’s known here. Over the last couple of years, though, some florists have been putting up signs dropping hints that in the west, it’s customary for men to take the initiative in giving presents on Valentine’s Day.
The idea still doesn’t seem to have really caught on, though, and when I stopped by the flower shop to pick up some roses for my wife this year, I didn’t see a crowd of other men doing the same. But it looks like guys may be slowly warming up to the idea of doing something sweet in February, as this year a number of high school girls got a pleasant, and present, surprise by receiving chocolate from their male classmates in something they’re calling “Reverse Valentine’s Day.”
In a country where girls traditionally give chocolate to boys on Valentine’s Day and the boys returning the favor exactly one month later on White Day, February 14 in Japan has got to be a pretty lonely day for the young men who attend all-boys schools.
But it turns out that those boys may not suffer through such a bleak holiday after all. Take a look at these pictures and see how some students at Japanese boys’ schools celebrated Valentine’s Day this year, minus the girls!
When we first saw this tweet from Twitter user kotekote_mk, we got all excited imagining the possibilities of re-using boring old chocolate boxes as handy storage boxes for our game cartridges and consoles. Just look at how neatly those cards fit into the little spaces for the chocolates! It really speaks to our love of organisation. And video games. And, okay, chocolate. And we’re not the only ones – the response to the tweet practically broke poor kotekote_mk’s Twitter page…
Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, which makes it a perfect opportunity for an elegant dinner out with your special someone. Of course, if you’re single, you may want to bypass a meal in a restaurant surrounded by couples making kissy faces at each other and just call Domino’s for a pizza instead.
But even if you’re not headed out, Domino’s understands that maybe you’re in the mood for both pizza and love. That’s why this Valentine’s Day the popular pizza providers are offering a deal that includes a cute heart-shaped pizza, and, if you’d like, a romantic kabe-don wall pound as part of the delivery service.
Leading up to Valentine’s Day in Japan, there’s one thing that’s impossible to escape – and it’s not swarthy, rose-touting Lotharios. It’s chocolate. In pretty packaging and delicious displays, store counters come alive with the sweet stuff at this time of year, and one of the more luxurious and decadent types is the rich, creamy nama choco (fresh chocolates).
The only problem with this type of chocolate is the fact that it blends an already creamy chocolate with even more cream and butter, making it heavy on the calories. Net users in Japan, though, have discovered an unusual way to cut out the extra fat – by replacing it with tofu! Using just three ingredients, we’ll let you in on the latest diet tip from Japan and show you how to make delicious, creamy nama choco with only half the calories.
The other day we came out with a list of some Valentine’s Day chocolates that are almost too beautiful to eat. If only we’d had a list of “chocolates so life-like you might not even realize that they are chocolates,” these “Crayons Colorés” would surely have gotten the top spot.
As a Valentine’s Day special, the Palace Hotel Tokyo’s pastry shop, “Sweets & Deli,” has come out with beautifully designed colored pencils, I mean, colored pencil-shaped chocolates.
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