One year in Japan!
Things are just as they seem. Only a little more so.
Over here, on February the 14th, the girls give the boys chocolate. And not just the cheap nasty stuff, but really good, expensive chocolate. And not just their boyfriend or husband, but friends, cow-okers and family members. These I got from a friend. One is a teddy bear angel and the other has a speck of gold in it. I’ve kept that to eat last.
It does mean then, that March 14th is called White Day, when boys are supposed to give the girls expensive things and white chocolate. When I’ve told students about Australian Valentine’s Day they all think it’s better than the Japanese version. On March the 14th, I’ll probably hear the opposite.
It also means I’ve been here for a year. Although I had 5 weeks during Christmas, and I’m off for another 10 days this week as well. I think I need to knuckle down and work hard because I’ve got some serious credit card debts at the moment that don’t help.
And, just to give you an indication of what, when some people have too much time on their hands, tend to do:
- The 555 list – where someone has collated all the 555 phone numbers in movies.
- Logging and annotating William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition – where someone else went through William Gibson’s book Pattern Recognition and checked all the references to real things.