So it was Valentine's Day last week. As you may know, Valentine's Day in Japan is different than America. If you know, check my entries from all the years prior to this one. Anyway, as usual, I got a bunch of chocolate from students of mine. And as usual, a lot of it was homemade. What was unusual was that none of it was nasty. some of it was actually pretty good. A few of the kids just melted some store-bought chocolate into a different shape, but some of those bitches actually baked! I was quite impressed once I overcame the rumbling trepidation in my bowels and tried eating some of it. The only bittersweet part (Ha ha! Actually bittersweet is not a popular variety for valentine's confections due to its obvious bittersweet connotations.) was that none of the chocolate was made (or purchased) especially for me. It's all obligation chocolate of one sort or another. The kids make 5 or 10 of the same cake, and then give one to each of their teachers, or at least all the ones that they don't hate. While some of the girls might like one of their teachers, they'll still give the same chocolate to everyone to avoid being found out. There's not too much of the romantic-type of chocolate going around. There's definitely some being furtively passed to the oblivious loser who pass for boys in my school, but none of its coming my way. But I do have to remember the names of the 20-or-so brown-nosers who gave me chocolate, so I can give them some white chocolate next month.