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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Friday, March 15, 2002 |
 Completely unrelated to having forgotten White Day (or is it?), but writing the previous post, I remembered that today is the 30th anniversary of the extension of the Shinkansen to Okayama.
It's odd how one thing can recall another. Almost X-Files-ish...
Anyway, there are special events in Okayama over the weekend, which look interesting- but I doubt I'll go. I'll just wait instead for the anniversary of the opening to Hiroshima, which took place on March 10, 1975, according to the Byun byun Shinkansen site. In any case, on Sunday there's a trip around the historical spots of Etajima, which I said I'd take part in. The Shinkansen'll just have to take second place.
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I've only just realised that yesterday was White Day- and I didn't give any chocolate!
In Japan, on Valentine's Day females give chocolate to males, and not the other way round. Males reciprocate on White Day, which is a day (March 14) dreamed up by the chocolate companies to increase their sales. I read a newspaper article somewhere that gave the figures for how much chocolate was sold on Valentine's Day and White Day, and it was some amazing amount, both in actual terms and in terms of the percentage of all the chocolate sold in a twelve-month period. I'll have to see if I can find the article again.
Anyway, this chocolate-giving is called giri choco, which means something along the lines of 'duty chocolate', and is so called because it takes place between males and females in the same office, school, or so on, or between friends; it has nothing to do with romance.
Except, in my office, everyone seems conveniently to have ignored this important social obligation. I got plenty of chocolate on Valentine's Day (I'd almost say too much, except that one can never have too much chocolate), but none of it was from the ladies in my office. Which is, I suppose, a good excuse for not having given out any yesterday... ;-)
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I've just noticed that there are daffodils out!
How does this compare with Britain? It's so long since I've been back during spring that I've forgotten what blooms when. A bit nasakenai, I think...
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It'll soon be cherry blossom season, but it didn't feel like it this morning. At least the torrential rain of last night had stopped, but it was still cold.
At least I didn't have to bike to work while holding an umbrella, though. Not that this is particularly difficult, but it is most definitely illegal. I'm always sure that the one day when I actually do bike to work with an open umbrella will be the day when the police are holding some sort of crackdown on this misdemeanour- and, as it happens, it looks like I might have been right had I tried it this morning. It was road safety day, and there were policemen and parents at nearly every road junction on the way to work. It looks like it's a good job the rain stopped...
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 7:43:46 pm.
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