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Suzu

White Day

Posted 2007-03-07 01:41:18 | Comments (3)

March 14th is White Day in Japan.
It's not a holiday, it's just a commercial event day created by sweets companies.

If you read my previous blog about Japanese Valentine's Day, you may remember that Valentine's Day is the day that girls give a chocolate to boys in Japan.

White Day is kind of opposite. It is the day that boys give something back to the girls who gave him a chocolate on Valentine's Day. So, if a boy got a lot of chocolate last month, he will need to buy a lot of presents :P
(this is not a must thing to do, so there are a lot of boys who don't give anything back to girls. or maybe they give something back to a girl who they think is special too)

When I was a Jr. high school student, it used to be said between students that if you get candies in return, it means the boy also likes you as a girlfriend, and if you get marshmallows, it means the boy doesn't think you are special to him. but maybe it's been different these days, i'm not sure.

Giving something back on White Day is kind of common between couples. and I think, it is almost a must thing in this case :P
There is something like an unspoken rule about the present known widely and it's called "sanbai-gaeshi". "San bai" means "three times", and "kaeshi (gaeshi)" means "return". So, the boy needs to give something back to his girlfriend which costs at least three times as expensive as the chocolate he got! oh poor boys :(

You've got any chocolate on Valentine's Day from Japanese girls? they are maybe expecting something from you on White Day! Get ready and surprise them :D

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interesting... i read about white day before but I didn't know about sanbai-gaeshi. does the company you work at arrange something for the day? It's march 13 over here right now, it should be 14th in Japan... how did it go with your colleagues or friends?.
Posted by iadv Mar 13th 2007
We don't give chocolates at work any more because we have many staff now. but when we used to, each of us got a little present on White Day such as a pack of bath stuff like bath gels and bath salt, and a pack of herb tea. that was pretty better than getting candies :P
Posted by Suzu Mar 14th 2007
oh I (my character) sent chocolates to some of my friends in FF11! (yes FF11 has an item called "love chocolate" in the game for Valentine's day!XD ) I wonder if any of them send me something back. i have to go home and check it!
Posted by Suzu Mar 14th 2007
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