I hate Valentine's Day with a passion. Its pure marketing genius, but its such a scam in favor of restauranteurs, jewellers, florists, chocolatiers and greeting card companies. Though, since I'm in a relationship, I have to play ball a little. To best mitigate the financial cost of the scam, my girlfriend and I exchanged valentine's day gifts during boxing week. I still went and got something small for today, but we felt that getting it done when it was (a lot) less expensive was a small way of living up to the spirit of the day while not getting bent over the table by the retailers today (is it just me, or do roses almost double in price around the 14th?).
Japan apparently has a rather quaint version of Valentines Day. On February 14th, the women buy gifts for the man or men in their lives. On March 14th, should the man be honored or impressed by the woman's gift, he reciprocates. Imagine the feminist uproar if that happened here...
