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Theresa joining is like a perfect example of what we're trying to do
Which is show you a lot of different opinions about Japan
And the weirdness of Japan
And kind of like that -ish -ish
And the normalness as well. This is the normal (Japanese) guy.
That kind of speaks.. -The REAL Japan, The real Japan
Where are you from? -Jamaica
Valentine's Day Japan!!!
Hello everyone!
And welcome to the newest episode of TheUwagaPies!
In this video, we wanted to tell you guys about
Valentine's Day in Japan
And.. the weird parts and the not so weird parts, and everything in between!
Point number 1, Valentine's Day in Japan is split into two days
Which is Valentine's Day and White Day
It's a really famous story I think.. -Yeah
Any classic weeb like me
knows about that right?
On Februrary 14th, the girls give the chocolates.
And for March 14th,
which is White Day, the guys give back chocolates
Alright, so basically Japan is centered around a confession culture
If it was the same day,
you can tell if it was going to be reciprocated.
But in Japan, they want to put that pressure
that confession pressure
of going to your senpai
The one you like and telling them
"Here's the chocolates"
I like.. Here's my heart with some made chocolates
And, it's not just the chocolate
It's like, you want to date them
It's really, really important for us
The thing is, at least in my culture, it's the guy
who has the confidence and the swag and walks over and he's like
"Hello Baby Let's go out'
But, in Japan it's the girl.. -It's the complete opposite
It's just the fact that it's the girl
So, the girl wears the pants is what you are trying to tell me
-Not really tho.. (in Japanese) -On Valentine's Day
From chocolate to date
It's like very common that like 20 girls
ask one guy. And basically
like a really popular guy will get 20 to 30 to 40 chocolates
The pain in my soul
And on White Day, you still have to give it back
But, these are like meaningless chocolates
All the pressure is on the girl to give to this guy,
who doesn't even care because he's getting 20. -Yeah, exactly
And then on White Day, he's just like.. -Yeah whatever. Take the chocolates
Enjoy yourself. It tastes nice. Bye
The White Day chocolates are less meaningful basically
Number 2, girls make the chocolates
by hand. They literally make
put their blood, sweat, and tears into these chocolates for these guys who
don't care about them. -and in the States, or the west,
you just buy a box of chocolates to give to a girl on Valentine's Day if you have someone you like
But, in Japan it's just
that much more crazy. Where all these girls all of a sudden go..
Yeah! Chop up the ingredients
And most of the time, they don't even make chocolates, it's mostly cookies.
The thing is, in Japan it's very uncommon to have an oven
Do you have an oven? -No, I don't have an oven
I don't have an oven either...
When I used to get these cookies for people,
I used to think, where are these from?
How did they make these? Did they buy them and pack it up?
You know it's like crazy cause I found out that
I walked into a department store and saw this big sign that said
"Oh, come in and try to cook" and I was like, What??
I went just to check out the place and
so apparently Japanese people,
go to department stores and malls
Just to use
an oven! They rent the space! They rent the oven!
And, they make the hand-made stuff
It's that important in Japan.. it's that important
You think, when you say homemade
you get this beautiful image of like your mother or grandma told
buy all the ingredients,
but in Japan to be honest
It's basically like
consumer culture, same way right? -Yeah..
They have these perfectly set up packages..
And all the things you need for it
They end up buying all these things anyways. It's the same kind of thing.
Do you think apartments in Japan purposely
left out ovens so people have to...
Let's leave a spec of hope
Point number 3, obligatory chocolates
So while it's very serious
and it's like confession is what you use Valentine's Day for
There's also this other side which is kind of loose
You have to kind of give
everyone in the office chocolates
Right, so there aren't any heavy feelings, you just gotta
Buy it and give it kind of thing. Like frivolous and no point
but I have to kind of thing
Yeah exactly
And, it's called Giri Chocolates. Which is like a common thing.
Giri..Giri..Giri..
Not that Giri.
Giri means obligation in Japanese
So it's kind of like in kindergarten and it's your birthday
and you have to invite the entire class.
But, you don't want to you know?
I don't really like josh, but your parents are like "NO!"
Invite everyone, be nice!
Sorry Josh if you're watching this
We love you Josh, we're not talking about you.
You have this lovey dovey confession culture
And then, at the same time we have
this giri choco culture
The business side where you have to give (chocolates) people so they feel nice
so that they feel nice kinda
So it's not all bad
if an office lady has to buy like 40 chocolates for her entire office
because obligatory chocolates in the office
is also applied to White Day
So basically, obligatory chocolates work both ways
So on Valentine's Day, you give the chocolates and on White Day, they come back
Point number 4!
Japanese Valentine's Day is really hyped up!
Basically, everywhere you go in Japan, you'll see
Valentine's Day things
Even at Pharmacies
Valentine's Day stuff everywhere
In Jamaica, it's more about the event. It's more about
I'm gonna take my girlfriend out or
I'm gonna try a glass of wine at somewhere nice looking
Like you don't see a month or two months before
All these preparations or whatever
it's more about
the event
It's less about stuff, more about the event.
But, when I lived in America, I went to places like New York or California
Where capitalism is really big
So like stores and department stores
Huge restaurants
have decorations all over the place from beginning of February
So..
I guess it's really that consumerism culture that
I'm personally not used to.. -Exactly
Like I've been in the States a few times
And what I usually know is
Cards, flowers, chocolates
and bears. They're specific to things that you could buy
and give to someone.
But in Japan, decoration for my phone, a phone case
Even appliances. What are you going to do?
Decorate your entire house for Valentine's Day?
I guess it's just this thing in Japan that seasons
It's like really set in stone
The minute one holiday is coming along
Everything just turns really deep into that holiday
Until the next season when they literally
Pull it down and put up the next one, you know what I mean?
It's just really crazy.
Christmas, Halloween, it's always the same
The questionable thing I've always felt
is from January, they start selling
Chocolates right? So how do people
keep it until February?
Chocolates don't go bad bro. -Really??
Why do they put it in the refrigerator? -Because they melt sweety
It's probably just to blow your conscience
They just want you to see it a million times so that you can keep thinking
"Oh, I need to buy chocolates!"
Plus, how do you choose where you're going to buy?
You wanna see all of the chocolates everywhere and then be like,
"I want this place's chocolates and that place's chocolates
Point number 5,
Valentine's Day is for the youth
Usually in Japan,
You don't usually see a lot of old people
celebrating Valentine's Day
This is sad because in America, you see sweathearts
grandparents holding hands
and going to dinner on Valentine's Day
You hardly ever see that in Japan
Yeah, it's chill like my grandparents go out. My grandparents go out.
And, I have to babysit on Valentine's Day
haha....
It's such a new fad in Japan to really celebrate Valentine's Day
It's more of a Western concept
The earliest memory of me spending Valentine's Day is
when I was in Middle School
So at the time, it was White Day
And I was with someone at the time.
Gogh, I said "at the time" twice now
I need to give this girl back chocolates right?
So I panicking from like 3 weeks ago
And she made, really good tasting chocolates
It was handmade. And the biggest reason I'm freaking out is
I'm so embarrassed.. It's so embarrassing
So a few nights before,
I finally figured it out. I need to buy a LOT
So I go to
I go to the chocolate store and I buy 20 boxes of chocolates.
Because if it is one, it's so embarrassing. So you buy 20.
You have to commit to what you are doing. And, since I'm dating an older girl,
I'm going to a class full of seniors in my middle school
And I look at her and I go up to her and
Like "Here's your chocolates"
I run away like fast as possible.
Very manly Ryo..
Very Manly
Like this video if you understand
Ryo's
Shyness
I mean like this
The thing is cause Valentine's Day isn't like an embarrassing
confession type of thing in Jamaica
But, we do have one culture
That's maybe similar
We have this candy grab
Basically, the school sells chocolates or candy and
we write down names of people we want to send it to
The student body president will
go around and give out the candy.
And, you know you always get candy from people you don't want to get candy from
So, you get it and you're like
you slip it into your back pocket and pretend like
and the next day like
"So, did you like get something special yesterday?"
Yeah, see that face is my face. It's so bad
It's so bad
But, maybe you don't know
If this person is really going to like respond to it
This kind of similar kind of culture
Thanks for watching this video! Share with us in the comments below
Any experiences, Valentine's Day experiences that you had!And as always, like subscribe
We are always really interested in hearing!
As always, like subscribe and
And, thank you for watching! Make sure to tune in for the latest one! BYEE!