Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. It is all screwed up here because the women are supposed to give to the men on valentine’s and not the other way around. In exactly one month from today on March 14 it will be White Day and the guys will give back to the girls who gave to them. For this reason, I should be doing a blanket campaign in hopes of reciprocal chocolate dividends. But I am not. You are supposed to give to your male superiors at work too as gifu koko or respect chocolate I think. A Japanese friend described it as a mafia like gesture of I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine. My supervisor doesn’t need to be encouraged in any way so he will be receiving nothing. Sorry Nishimura-sensei. This is the 70th anniversary of Valentine’s day being introduced to Japan. The chocolate areas of the every department store have been over run with women buying commemorative chocolates for everyone under the sun. One of my Japanese friends made me laugh last night about it. She said that Japanese people are all hopelessly locked in consumerism. Every foreigner has noticed this but for a Japanese person to say it was wonderful.
Well this past weekend I decided to run away. At first it wasn’t overly successful but then we escaped. At midnight on Saturday night, myself and a friend decided to head for the ocean. We were feeling land locked and winter blahs to an extreme and enjoying the drink bar (unlimited tea and soda) at the Royal Host restaurant wasn’t cutting it. We thought about a late night last minute flight or a shinkensen trip but in the end we just got in the car and drove for 5 hours based on a map we had made on the placemat in the restaurant. We drove north for the most part, up through the mountains. I really have no music options in the car so we just chatted the night away and tried to focus and the ever increasing snow on the roads. When we arrived it was 5:30 in the morning. It was so satisfying to get there even though we had no real plans. There was a lot of snow and cold and we left the car running the remaining two hours of the night and slept in the car in a shipping yard. It was like camping but more uncomfortable. We were not daunted by this fact though and woke up in an hour or two for hot tea from the vending machine. We walked up the frozen coast and saw some lunatic surfing in the extremely cold water. Then to our shock, another guy showed up and joined him. I am sure if we had waited a little longer, the whole town would have been out there.
We drove back home on Sunday and had naps, haircuts and chicken stew with dumpling. It was a raving success and I felt exhausted but at the same time refreshed. The car is still a mess and I will get around to washing it some day. There was a crazy man at the car wash at 2:30 in the morning while we were on our car trip. We both commented on the fact that he was insane for washing his car in the middle of a snow storm at that time of night so I have refused to wash mine just as an act of protest. I’ll see how long I last and if anyone ever notices. The pictures today are of my trip to a town I never did find out the name of. I think it started with J but it was dark or snowing heavily most of the time. They have a ton of snow up there.There was so much and it was pushed up so high that you couldn't see the gas stations! I have never seen anything like it. It was taller than the street lights. It was higher than the cars on the side of the road. But as we drove back home, all the snow disappeared with ever kilometer and the sun shone brightly. It felt like we were driving into spring and it was the best feeling. I felt like smiling for no reason and I haven’t really felt like that recently. You need to take these little trips to recharge your batteries. South winds have been blowing all week. Spring is coming and it is the best news yet.