Happy Valentine's Day Japan

Today, February 14th, the temperature was 65 freakin' degrees. The wind was also blowing a steady 30 mph or so for the majority of the day. Up on the 11th floor of the library, where my classroom is, you can imagine the wind was howling pretty good. Japan is about the size of California, so you can get an idea of how big this storm system is. It's wreaking havoc across the country, particularly in places that have snow on the ground, as the warm temps are causing avalanches and excess snow melt.


Aside from being mother nature's whipping boy, Japan is just finishing up a romantic day during which it has thoroughly bastardized yet another western (American) holiday. As they are known to do, the Japanese people take a perfectly fine non-Japanese holiday, butcher it's most essential characteristics, and call it their own.
In the case of Valentine's Day, they've grabbed the capitalist bull by the horns and split it into two days. Traditional Valentine's Day, February 14th, is just for the boys in Japan. Today, the ladies shower us with chocolate, or cake, and of course love. In turn, the girls have their own version of Valentine's Day, called White Day, some time in March, the 15th if I'm not mistaken (but I probably am). On White Day, men shower the women (or woman) in their lives with chocolate, cake, and of course love.
So tonight Chieko and I went out for a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant. I'm currently stuffed to the gills. The food was really good and our waiter was eager to please, but he had a rotten grey tooth that I couldn't stop looking at whenever he was at our table. Since I couldn't understand much of what he was saying, I spent a lot of time gazing at that tooth.
So now I'm about to lug my sluggish body back into motion only to the extent that it gets me from here in front of the computer up to my bed. Hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day.