My co-worker sent me mail this morning. "Hi, Mari. It costs 1500yen for each person to buy chocolates in this section. I will collect money later." This means all women at my work got chocolate for the male co-workers for a Valentine gift. This is a crazy custom. Everybody knows this is a paltry trick by the chocolate makers. I don’t want to spend money to buy chocolate for some guy I hardly talk with. It’s not a money issue, I don’t like to follow such tricks, but if I stop, I feel bad for my women coworkers. I’m not the only woman who thinks like this, but I am not sure we will stop this even though we all are unhappy. You know, we can guess many women will think like this when they buy giri choco. "Ah, maybe I have to buy chocolate for that baldie sitting next to me. But that beer barrel will sulk, if I only gave to baldie…Wow I think I need to send one to my boss to ask for three days off next week. Ah, I want to eat a nice lunch instead of spending my money on this!" Will you enjoy a chocolate when you imagine this? By that I mean, guys can’t be happy to get such a gift. Who can be happy in this Japanese valentine? Not women, not guys. Only chocolate makers.