While Valentine’s Day (February 14) is celebrated in Japan, contrary to the practice in many other countries, Japanese women are the primary gift givers, presenting chocolates to men. There is no reciprocal exchange of gifts.

However, the following month, on White Day (March 14), men who received chocolates on Valentine’s Day are expected to give back a gift of sweets to the women that gave them to him.

While some westerners may see gender bias, White Day should be seen as neither an attempt to correct gender discrimination nor just another quirky cultural difference.  The Japanese celebrate Valentine’s Day as other countries do, except split into two separate days.

Apparently begun as an effort by Japan’s confectionary industry to drive sales, White Day has become an unofficial, modern-day Japanese holiday of love reflecting a significant change in social attitudes and gender relationships.  Today, Japanese men buy sweets and other tokens of affection for the women in their lives, including their loved ones, friends and co-workers. 

I visited our favorite Tokyo la patisserie, La Vie Un Reve, to purchase a wonderful selection of macaroons, la madeleines and assorted other authentic French pastries to fulfill my White Day obligation.

For myself, I like the experience.  Since sharing is a common and expected Japanese practice, I get to enjoy my Valentine Day chocolates and the awesome White Day French pastry sweets!

A powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck Japan around 11:08p.m. on Saturday February 13 off the coast of the Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures in the Tohoku region.

The quake measured a strong 6 –– the second-highest level –– on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) did not issue a tsunami warning.

We felt the quake in Tokyo, where it registered a 4 on the Japanese scale. Although our building was shaking for about 5 minutes, it seemed to last forever at the time. We are safe, did not lose power or experience any damage. However, we did get our emergency backpacks, flashlights and other gear ready for use.

According to news reports, the quake was less than a month before the 10th anniversary of the of the Great East Japan Earthquake, a magnitude of 9.0 event, that struck the same region on March 11, 2011. The JMA believes this latest quake was an aftershock from that earlier event and says that more aftershocks of up to a strong 6 on the Japanese scale could occur for at least a week.

A small plum tree in a local park shows the first sign of spring in Tokyo. Keiko and I had lovely large plum trees in our Crystal Lake Japanese garden.

Getting ready for my personal SuperBowl Party watching the game live in Tokyo at 8:30 AM JST Monday February 8th on the DAZN sports channel.

That there will be no halftime show doesn’t bother me but I will miss the commercials. In the past, they were often more fun and interesting to watch than the game!

In any event, with an ample supply of Japanese beer and snacks for the game, I am preparing my award-winning “Super Bowl of Chile” for a half-time brunch. Keiko is working from home and I expect she will join Toma and I for the culinary experience.

Growing up around New York City, the N.Y. Giants were my team, so when living in Maine I never could root for the New England Patriots. However, I always appreciated Bill Belichick’s coaching genius (he was a former defensive coordinator for the Giants), Tom Brady’s talent and Rob Gronkowski’s attitude. I am looking forward to seeing if the Brady/Gronk duo will demonstrate some of the Patriots magic to topple Patrick Mahomes and company.

It has been a very mild winter season in Tokyo. But days before Sitsubun and the first day of Spring, winter decided to remind us that it can snow in Tokyo! On the afternoon of January 28, 2021 snow flurries appeared in the Japanese capital.

Surprised, I went outside to see sufficient white stuff laying on the ground. There was no real accumulation and the surprise “storm” was over in a few hours and little evidence of snow remained.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) the event was due to a low-pressure system and a strong winter pressure pattern that caused extremely strong winds across Japan. Heavy snow mainly on the Sea of Japan side of the country and northern areas was predicted.

With the strong winds, Tokyo experienced a rare snow event while Hokkaido in Japan’s north received more than 50 cm of snow in blizzard conditions.

The day after our snow event the afternoon temperature in Tokyo reached 65F/18C.

The experience did prompt me to look at my awesome collection winter photos from Maine.