Desperate for a Home-Cooked Steak Dinner

We have been hungering for a nice, thick steak recently. With the extraordinary cost of beef and the ban on American beef imports, we rarely eat beef here. What little we do eat is usually very thinly sliced, thinner than bacon. But a couple of weeks back we broke down and bought some pseudo-steak at the local grocery store. However, it did not really satisfy. It was almost $20 for about 1 pound. The cuts were thick by local standards, but at barely 1/2” thick, were no where close to the juicy Costco tri-tip steaks we often barbecued at the Wagemann family Sunday night dinners at Terry’s parent’s house.

On Saturday we went on one of our Costco-Japan treks. We found some slightly thicker steaks imported from Australia. The cost was about $16/pound. The steaks were a little over 1/2” thick. They were regular cuts, nothing special, but they looked pretty good and we were desperate enough to try again.

Mio cooked them up with some sliced onions, along with steamed potatoes/carrots, and steamed green beans. The boys wanted garlic bread, so we toasted some. We had some ground horseradish that Mio found in an import store recently, and mixed that with some sour cream to create a dip for the steak. While it still was not the same as good old American steak, it was fairly satisfying. For dessert we had American apple pie from Costco. All in all, it was a pretty satisfying dinner that was much heavier than we were used to, but it was good!

Valentine’s Day in Japan

While Japan recognizes Valentine’s Day, the way in which it is recognized is quite different than in the West.

In Japan, it is only the women who give presents (mainly chocolates) to men on Valentine’s Day. Japanese women are usually too shy to express their feelings. (Though it might not be so true nowadays.) Therefore, Valentine's Day was thought to be a great opportunity to let women express their feelings. However romantic this may sound, the real story is that this is a custom that smart chocolate companies created to boost their sales, and it has been very successful. Reports say that the chocolate companies in Japan sell more than half of their annual sales during the week before Valentine's Day.

The chocolates that women give out are generally of two types. One type is "Giri-choko (obligation chocolate)." "Giri-choko" is the chocolate given to men such as bosses, colleagues or male friends that women have no romantic interest in, just for friendship or gratitude. The concept of "giri" is very Japanese. It is a mutual obligation that the Japanese follow when dealing with each other. If someone does a favor for you, then you feel obligated to do something for that person in return.

When women give chocolates to their loved ones, "true love" chocolates are called "Honmei-choko."

The Valentine's Day vogue of today had its beginnings in 1936 and 1952 when a Kobe confectionery, Morozoff, utilized their shrewd commercialism in making the most of this custom. It began with a campaign for women to give chocolates to the man in their heart. In 1958, a Tokyo confectionery took up this campaign and the custom became an instant hit among young women.

Men are supposed to return gifts to women on a day called "White Day" (March 14th), another Japanese creation from the chocolate companies. This day was created around 1975. Many men see this as being quite unnecessary.

White Day chocolates are often white or some color other than brown. The story goes that changing the chocolates from brown to another color would prevent frugal men from simply keeping the Valentine’s Day chocolates and recycling them back to the women that initially gave them Valentine’s Day chocolates. On White Day they also sell cakes and other confectioneries.

As for Valentine’s Day cards, sending a Valentine's cards is not common in Japan, and the phrase "Happy Valentines" is not widely used. However, "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Birthday" are widely used.