Happy Valentine's Day

Who would have known that this is a highly celebrated holiday in Japan. Granted it's a little different but it's still celebrated. Surprisingly the tradition in Japan is only for women to give gifts to their male partners. Women are also expected to bring chocolates to their male co-workers. Since gifts are given only by women on this day, we found that some gifts were geared specifically toward men. Nick's favorite one was a hot pink box with a heart-shaped window displaying two cans of Sapporo lager. Don't worry ladies, on March 14th it's the man's turn to return the favor. Fortunately for us we were out of our branch today and I was not expected to bring chocolate for everyone.

*** Interesting side note about Valentine's Day: When we were discussing Valentine's traditions, Martina, who lived in Korea, explained the tradition that she experienced while living there. In Korea if you didn't have a special someone on either Feb. 14th or March 14th then you celebrate April 14th as 'Black Day'. Basically, on April 14th, those who are still single wear black clothing, drink black coffee and eat some sort of dark food. This signifies to everyone else that you are still single. The tradition helps to "single out" the singles therefore making it easier to meet others in the same situation.

Tonight, while being lazy around the apartment (typical us), we received a call from Heather that she and Martina were having a few drinks at Playmate’s. Having spent a majority of the day grocery shopping and cleaning, this sounded like a pretty good idea. So, we bundled up and headed out on a short walk across downtown to the bar. When we walked in we were quickly greeted by the Japanese bartenders, one of which even recalled my name from last time (Tomoko). Since we had many single beers last time, we opted for a pitcher of the house beer (Suntory Magnum Dry) this time. When asking for a house draft beer, you simply say ‘Nama biru’. A single draft beer costs 550 yen ($5), and a pitcher costs 2100 yen ($18). The pitcher, containing about 6 beers, was a far better deal.

3 'Material Girls' (from left: Martina, Heather & Steph)

Needless to say, after a few beers the microphones came out once again. We lit it up with a little “With or Without You”, “We Are the World” and the Foo Fighter’s “All My Life”. We’re starting to realize that some songs are great for karaoke and some are not. A good karaoke song needs to have 1) a good pace, 2) few lulls, and 3) recognizable lyrics. So, for the second time in a week we closed Playmates down (3am). Luckily, we had a half dozen donuts from Mister Donut waiting for us back home. After a quick snack and a chat online with Ashleigh we laid down for the night.

Our walk home at 3am