Wearing a Tiger-Shaped Heart

Valentine's Day this year is going to be just like how it was for the past 21 years of my life. "Alone". However, there's something really odd about Valentine's Day this year that I feel is unlike any other Valentine's Day I've ever had and being "alone" is the probably not how I'm going to describe tomorrow night.

Because Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day happen to fall on the same day and happen to share the same crimson shades, tomorrow night, I will be spending Valentine's Day with at least 25 other individuals that'll make this year the most busy romantic day I've ever had.

However, I think this V-Day has so many things wrong with it mostly because I feel myself convulsing at the sound/site/presence of anything related to the movie Valentine's Day, which I hope completely bombs in the office (but I know won't because I'm the only single girl on the planet). It's going to be one of those movies with a kabillion guest celebrities who are all in lame, romantic, awshucks, and lol-worthy points in their life. They'll all run into some problem that gets in the way of their love life and by the end of the movie, they'll all realize Valentine's Day is not about the romance between two individuals but it's about loving and accepting each other AND yourself. I wonder if the sales for Twilight and New Moon will suddenly spike this weekend too.

If there's one thing I really like about V-Day, it has to be how it's practiced in other countries...more specifically Japan. I've read so much manga back then that there have been enough stories revolving on how characters deal with V-Day and I wish those scenarios were repeated when I was in high school.

In Japan, this is great. I could see potential for a lot of abuse here. Only females are expected to give males chocolate for V-Day instead of cards and flowers, so that they don't have to forever wait for the passive Asian male to ever act. Because V-Day in Japan is just like how it is in American elementary schools where each kid must give out commercial-themed V-Day cards to their teachers, frenemies, and strangers in their class, women in work environments typically give out chocolates to all of their male subordinates. But here's the best part because every woman has the bitch within them.

Women in Japan do not treat their chocolate gifts like generic V-Day cards. Depending on which guy ends up on their f-list or yes list, he may be lucky(?) to get some fancy chocolate cake or a pile of cheap chocolate from Daiso. In fact, the amount of chocolate a boy gets is directly proportional to the girl's love/hate feelings for them.

March 14 is White Day, which is the girl's big day in that the boy-given-chocolate is encouraged to return the favor or else is he is looked down by all of his female coworkers. By not returning the gift no matter the reason or the excuse sets the boy up for social suicide. To avoid the douche-status even if he's not interested, the boy is expected to return the favor. To show that he is not romantically interested, he provides a gift of equal value but it's in the form of inedible products like accessories or stuffed animals. If he does show interest, he'd return the favor by elevating the value of the gift and must return the "favor" to the girl 2 or 3 times as much.

Now that takes a lot of creativity there and I'd LOVE to see how much work and student relationships would crumble/arise from this sort of fun. It would totally give everyone things to talk about not just for one day but for a whole month! Think of all the comparisons that boys would give to each other on who got how many chocolates on V-Day. Think of all the girls competing for one boy's attention and having chocolate-themed showdowns. This would be like Flavor of Love but real life.

I mean, V-Day today has become a women-driven holiday with hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, and blue moons so why can't America take advantage of the commercial opportunities and follow suit. If America followed this tradition, the female will always win and I know we'd put a ring on it.