I think Japanese are celebrating every month.
I spend about 100,000 Yen (1,000 Dollars)...
If I can eat cake I am happy.
Hey guys, it's Cathy Cat and today we're talk about love and anniversary.
When you date in Japan the anniversaries are becoming quite important.
And this time we're going to ask Japanese girls and guys what they think
is an important anniversary here in Japan and what you have to do then.
Let's go and ask Japanese.
Which dating anniversary is important?
The first 1 year anniversary, that marks being together for the very first year.
Or the wedding anniversary. Days like that.
I think those dates are important to Japanese people.
Are there people who celebrate every month?
You only do that until high school age.
Once you're grown up, you don't need it? - Not necessary anymore.
Tell me about anniversaries you personally don't need.
The first one month anniversary! I think that's too early to celebrate!
You think so too right?
When people put their "one month anniversary" things up on twitter or instagram...
I am never quite sure about what to think about that.
It's up to them.
But anniversaries give us guys a lot of pressure.
Pressure for men? - Yes men have to give girls gifts...
It's a Japanese cultural thing.
So every-time we need to think of a gift or similar to surprise her.
There's a lot of pressure on that.
Do girls have a lot of pressure too?
We don't have any. - We don't. We are lucky.
When your partner forgets the one year anniversary, what do you do?
I wonder... well from the second year, people start forgetting about it...
I know. That's gonna be a scolding bam-bam slap in the face.
Slap slap or slap slap slap.
I would ask questions until he realized.
What day to you think it is today?
That's the beginning. - I will make him realize.
Until he goes "AH!" and realizes it. What if he says "Today is Saturday, right." instead?
I would be like "What?"
Has your partner ever forgotten an anniversary?
Never.
Mine forgot a lot, going to gamble instead.
Oh dear he forgot? Have you ever forgotten an anniversary?
To be honest I have....
How did that work out for you? - She questioned me until I found out.
Was she angry? - Yes, she was looking forward to it...
But I had forgotten. I apologised, but we still fought about it.
How long was she angry? - She wouldn't talk with me for a week.
She should have just slapped me.
What do you want to happen at an anniversary?
I would like to go to a more high class restaurant.
I don't need a present, but I want to do something out of the ordinary.
What do you want? - Nothing. I just want to spend time together.
What will do you for an anniversary? - I wanna take her out, Disneyland or so.
It's one full year since we started dating, it needs to be celebrated accordingly.
Disneyland, a fancy restaurant or a beautiful place.
What do you want your girlfriend to do in return?
It would be great if she dropped hints about what she wants on twitter or instagram.
What surprises she wants or so.
So if I do that on the anniversary, she will be happy.
I think dropping hints like that is common right?
Having girls drop hints?
I am sure girls want that too.
I think that's their thing. - It's not.
I think girls do that. - They don't.
They do. - No they don't. I am sure they do. - Sure they don't.
I am sure a girl I date would want me to pick up on it. - Surely not.
She would post it on her Social Media. - Nobody does that.
Anniversaries are super important in Japan. Which ones are important?
Once you are dating. Doesn't have a 100 year one but...
100 year anniversary? You mean 100 day anniversary? - Whops my bad.
I got that wrong.
100 year anniversary? Please try hard to reach that guys.
Maybe old people can reach that.
Looking around you, what anniversaries are celebrated?
Japanese celebrate every month. First month, second month, third month and such.
That's a lot of Anniversaries.
Japanese celebrate every month. Koreans have the 100 day anniversary and such.
In Japan we celebrate every month.
That sounds important. - It's not.
Oh it's not? - Not really.
I don't care so much about anniversaries, I never celebrated any.
Is there an anniversary you would definitely like to celebrate?
I'd rather celebrate the 1year anniversary of me having worked in a job.
Like a party to celebrate having made it through the first year at a proper employment.
I would celebrate that.
Rather than as couple.. - I'd celebrate work and with friends...
I value my friends over my boyfriend. That's important to me.
Nice one. Do you value anniversaries?
I do. But not every month.
But one year I celebrate properly.
What if your partner forgot your 1 year anniversary?
What would I do?
Instead of doing something, I like the "We are almost one year together" build up.
I want to plan where we will be going together.
I am not expecting any surprises.
How about you?
I don't mind. Anything is good for me.
When you look at couples around you, what do they often do?
They go to Disneyland.
They get a ticket, go to a restaurant, hand it over and go to Disney together.
That might be the better standard.
Reserve a expensive restaurant, and then say you go to Disney together.
That's the Japanese standard celebration? - Yeah it's the simple approach.
Looking at friends, what else do you see?
Having anniversary balloons all around.
If the partner comes home, the partner will be like "Happy Birthday!"
Balloons everywhere. - Happy anniversary!
And then you have to search for the treasure.
Search for it? - Yes we have that.
You search for the right paper, and then it turns out to be a Disney Ticket.
You make them work for their Disney Ticket.
Yes, make them move and search for it.
There are some really romantic ideas around.
Do the men have a lot of pressure to make the anniversary great?
Yeah that's a possibility.
What anniversary do men have to celebrate?
Once you're dating I mean.
The 1 or 2 year anniversary.
And then the anniversary for going out for a year. I celebrated that a lot.
I am dating my girlfriend for 3 years now. I celebrated up until 1 year and a bit but...
right now I am not doing that anymore.
I celebrated the day we started going out and then yearly. We traveled and such.
The day you started going out, was that celebrated every month?
We celebrated it half-yearly.
You celebrated a lot!
At the beginning I tried my best.
Right now I started working, so I don't have time for it.
What did you do for the 1 year anniversary?
We went to Disneyland, stayed in a hotel there, and then went to Disney Sea on the next day.
That's a gorgeous celebration.
I tried my best back then.
How much did you spend on it?
In total?
I think it came up to 100,000 Yen (1,000 dollars)
That's quite a lot.
I was so much in love at that time, I tried my best.
I was fine doing that.
Is there a lot of pressure on men to make the day a success? Did you want to do all of that?
I wanted to do it. There was no pressure, I enjoyed it.
Is there pressure?
In the beginning I wanted to do all those things but...
the less I started doing, the more my girlfriend would be like "Why are you not doing anything?"
I had forgotten about it. So I was like "Ah I have to do it now..."
Have you ever forgotten an anniversary? - I have.
She was so angry.
How angry was she?
It was our one year anniversary, and I mistook and celebrated it one day too late.
"That was yesterday!" she said and was very angry.
For three days she would not listen to me.
Wow she was angry.
She was fuming.
How did you calm her?
I kept apologising. Little by little. At first she would not respond at all.
Little by little I got her to forgive me.
Did you celebrate before the 1 year anniversary?
I celebrated our half year anniversary and our birthdays.
But I mistook the one year anniversary date...
What did you do instead to that occasion?
I took her for a journey. Travelled with her.
In order to apologise and extinguish the fire.
Where did you go? - Kenrokuen.
It's a place famous for its Japanese gardens. Not sure how to explain that.
Where is it located?
It's in Ishikawa prefecture, Kanazawa.
How long?
Two days and one night.
Did you fix things with her then?
I took her wherever she wanted to go.
I want to go there - YES that was they only response I could give.
And you saved the day? - Yeah somewhat.
Good to hear that. Does that mean, men have to do everything?
What do men generally have to do for anniversaries?
Girls do give some presents back but... in Japan...
in our culture, men have to do something for the ladies on these days.
Have you received anything from your girlfriends?
On anniversaries, we exchanged gifts.
On christmas or on anniversaries.
I got some gifts from her.
Birthdays or when I passed my test.
She would give me a surprise.
Not quite equal but you both try to give something to each other.
What anniversaries exist in Japan?
One week anniversary. One month anniversary. - One month.
I haven't dated anyone yet.
Really? Why?
You can talk about people you know about.
One week...
I think people generally celebrate from the one month anniversary.
1 month, 3 months, 6 month.
Sometimes there is the "day we met" anniversary too.
Day of dating and day of meeting are separate anniversaries?
And the "day we did XY" anniversary.
- That does exist. - The first day we went on a date anniversary.
There are people who celebrate that.
The day we met, the day we dated, the day we went out, the day we kissed...
Lots of anniversaries there.
That depends on the couple.
The little ones, seem to be a thing for middle schoolers.
They want to celebrate it.
On those anniversaries, what do boys and girls do?
They recently make videos. - Videos?
I've seen couples making videos!
They make videos with images and put "thank you" at the end.
They edit pictures of them both and match with the music.
That foreigner there is taking pictures of us... he is really staring...
He really doesn't stop. - Sorry about that.
He must aim for our fashion style.
Who gives presents in the relationship?
Both I think. It's an exchange thing.
That's the image I have.
It's a gratification thing. Those who wanna do it, do it.
They also make photo albums and such.
Haven't you seen people who stick it up on cork boards? - Yes I have.
There are couples who stick pictures on cork boards and display it like that.
There are some super couple-y people.
Yeah there are.
What do you wish for, from an ideal anniversary?
A place you want to go to or such.
As long as I can eat cake I am happy.
As long as he remembers it. He can just send me a message saying thanks.
When he forgets the anniversary, what do you do?
I would drop hints like "It's almost a year..."
You notify him. - I would.
I would notify him.
You'd be dropping hints?
Not hints, I would probably say it out loud.
If he forgot the one year anniversary, maybe you are not dating anymore.
Natural separation.
Those were all questions, thank you so much.
So guys welcome to my room. This is filmed on my private room, this is where
I do my youtube videos for my personal channel, the "Cathy Cat" channel.
Be sure to come over and check it out.
About anniversaries. The one anniversary you shall not miss when you come to Japan
and maybe date a Japanese person, is the 1 year anniversary.
If you miss that, your girlfriend is gonna be very miffed.
She will not be very happy with you.
So that's a thing that you should not miss. But there are other anniversaries and that
really depends on the couple. So case by case it can be totally different.
You don't have to celebrate it or other people celebrate it very extravagantly.
If you'd like to celebrate it, check with your partner what they'd like to do.
I think there is a trend with the first couple of months, celebrating those...
Then it goes yearly. 1 year anniversary and in Japan a very popular thing to do...
is going to Disneyland.
Japanese people and couples love going to Disneyland and when you go there you
will see so many couples there.
That's generally a happy, save thing to do on the 1 year anniversary.
If you wanna splash out more money, you can go on a journey around Japan.
So that's what's happening a lot. So in your country, or in your circle of friends...
Is there any anniversary you celebrate that's special or important
That you shall not miss?
Let us know, looking forward to reading your comments down below.
Guys check out each other's comments. Always find it helpful. Maybe you find a new
inspiration for a nice anniversary that you can give your current or future partner.
I hope you have a great day and I hope to catch you soon on Ask Japanese!
And thank you for subscribing. Catch you soon! Bye bye!