Happy Valentine’s Day!

In Japan, women give chocolates to men on Valentine's Day. This is not just for love interests, but also for men who are co-workers, etc. During the weeks before Valentine’s Day, the stores are filled with chocolate for sale. Below is a picture of a chocolate booth in the Valentine Chocolate Extravaganza at the Seibu Department Store in Tokyo. In Japanese department stores, only a small portion of the merchandise actually belongs to the department store. The rest of the space is rented out to small shops, and around Valentine’s Day the space is rented to chocolate shops.
February 14 is all about women giving chocolate to men, but men get their turn a month later, on March 14. On White Day, men must give white chocolate to all the women who gave them Valentine's chocolate, and the white chocolate must be double the value of what the men received! A Japanese man told me that one Valentine’s Day he received chocolate from fifteen women, which meant that he had a very expensive March 14!
Left to right: fresh white chocolate from Japan's north island of Hokkaido, a chocolate tin with the Penguin Suica Card logo, fresh caramel from Hokkaido, and chocolate truffles.