Photographs from a small group of islands
Valentines Day is just around the corner, and in Japan it’s customary for women to give men chocolate on the 14th. But there’s chocolate, and then there is chocolate. Check out the tasty Mona Lisa below that’s on display at Tokyo’s Salon du chocolat. 13kg of chocolate went into painting this.
Go ahead and call me unromantic, and perhaps a little bit cynical, but isn’t this somewhat excessive? There again, look at this chocolate copy of Brussels’s Grand Platz.
Now that’s excessive!
Recently at my school, we had the rather tedious task of teaching the second graders (13 year olds) tag questions. After wowing them with such fascinating examples as,
You are from Japan, aren’t you?
and
You can play baseball, can’t you?
they seemed ready to have a go themselves. So, on the board we wrote,
You _______ her, don’t you?
The usual eager students (3 of them) put their hands up, and the chosen one confidently shouted out his answer, adding extra emphasis to the missing word.
You DO her, don’t you?
Sadly, in a class full of schoolboys (and schoolgirls), it was left to the 34 year old English teacher to laugh furtively. A great opportunity missed.
You would have found it funnier if you’d been there, wouldn’t you?
Tokyoites and pets it would appear are not the best of bedfellows.
Coming from Britain, I’m still surprised by Japan’s somewhat liberal approach to tobacco. Unlike my home country, cigarettes aren’t outrageously priced, and they are readily available everywhere. Even in bars they are the same price as those bought from a shop. Not like the ridiculously overpriced vending machines found in British pubs
Also, the packets don’t contain graphic warnings about smoking giving you a vast array of unpleasant diseases. The warnings in Japan (if indeed you could class them as warnings) suggest that you try not to smoke too much. And if you can, try and put the cigarette out before you get right to the end. But more significant than any of this, is the observation of smoking manner.
Japan Tobacco’s recent campaign is a perfect example of the approach to smoking in this country. There’s clearly no need to do anything as drastic as giving-up. Heaven forbid. Rather, just brush up on your smoking manners and you’ll be fine. And perhaps most important of all, smile!
With such a lax attitude, anybody would think that the government has connections with the tobacco industry.
What’s that? Oh right.