Valentine's Day

Today was Valentine's Day in Japan as well as America. The main difference is that here, February 14th is a holiday where ONLY women give cards or gifts to men. March 14th is a second holiday called White Day. On White Day, it's the dudes turns to give back to the ladies. Aren't Japanese people weird? Come on, that's our holiday anyway. Like, what's up with the splitting it into two pieces and giving materialism twice as much fodder?

According to my friend Rachel, chocolate is the #1 thang to do here on Vday. I was glad to read her blog entry because my teachers had been blathering nonsense to me all week about what they were calling `Duty Chocolate` and I hadn`t a clue what they were talking about. Rachel clarifies on her blog:

There are two specific types of chocolate gifts that should be handed out by women to the men in their lives. One is called giri-choko, which translates as "obligation chocolate" and should be given to male coworkers, friends, etc. There is no implication of romantic feelings, only gratitude and friendship. The other is honmei-choko which is given to a love interest, usually with another small gift, like a necktie.

Anyway, to show Okinawa how much I love her on this fine day, I swam into the ocean and wrote a note to her across the sea... actually no, I just made her this picture on the computer. But that was the idea! Happy Valentine's Day, Okinawa.