Fun with Valentines

Last year, on Valentine's Day I brought some chocolates to school for the other teachers. I had thought I only needed to bring enough for the male teachers since in Japan, Valentine's Day is for women to give gifts to men, and White Day is when the women get gifts. As it turned out, the female teachers also ate the chocolates, and there weren't enough for everyone.

This year, I decided to avoid that mistake by buying a larger box of chocolates. I also decided that although I wouldn't be at my mountain school on Valentine's Day, I would get some chocolates for those teachers, too. I like those teachers quite a bit, and I figured it would be fun. So this year I got two boxes of chocolates, spending about $40 on all of it.

I took the chocolates to TJHS this past Thursday, since that was the last time I'd be there before Valentine's Day. Half of the chocolates were little sculpted roses, and the other half were squares decorated with cartoons of cats doing human things. I put the box in the kitchen area of the staff room before school started and told the English teacher they were there. She told the other teachers about them later in the morning, and around lunch time they finally busted them out. I knew exactly when it happened because there was a collective squeal of "Kawaii!!!" from the female teachers in the kitchen. They were cute chocolates, indeed.

The best reaction I got, though, came from the math teacher, S-sensei. When he heard that there were chocolates, he said very excitedly, "I love chocolate!" and ran into the kitchen to get some. He actually sprinted through the staff room. There were enough chocolates for each teacher to have two, and I think he must've put both of them in his mouth at once because he came back with chipmunk cheeks. I appreciated his enthusiasm.

Anyhow, the chocolates made for a good conversation starter; I got to talk to many of the teachers that day, if only briefly. Between that and S-sensei's reaction, I think the chocolates were well worth the money I spent on them. The interesting thing will be to see what happens on White Day. Typically that's when men return the favor, usually giving cookies to the women who gave them chocolate. But I don't know how it will work since I gave the chocolate to the whole staff room. I won't be disappointed if I don't get anything in return; I was doing it just for fun. But I certainly wouldn't say no to cookies if they happened to show up on my desk.