This Sunday is Valentine’s Day! I was surprised to find out that Valentine’s Day is celebrated differently in Japan compared to my home of New Zealand.
I found it surprising that in Japan the girls go to a lot of effort to make gifts for Valentines Day, some people even hand-make chocolates which I thought was amazing! Before coming to Japan I had never heard of “White Day” which is on March 14th, where boys may return the favour and give gifts to the girls they got gifts from. In western countries it is the opposite! Not only does White Day not exist, but on Valentine's Day it is the boys who give gifts to the girls! Since it is usually the boys who are giving the gifts, I had never heard of anyone hand-making chocolates or gifts for Valentines Day before.
In western countries Valentines is mainly a day just for couples but recently there has been a trend called “Galentines Day” (girl+valentines＝galentines) this is where a group of girls who are friends will celebrate Valentine’s Day together, eating sweets and watching romantic movies together!
New Zealand is famous for adventure sports! Have you heard of Bungy Jumping?
It was made popular in New Zealand in 1988 by Mr AJ Hacket, who was inspired by people in Vanuatu, who would jump off of tall platforms with vines tied around their ankles as a test of courage.
AJ came back to New Zealand and invented the bungy rope with the help from some scientists in Auckland. AJ wanted to show his new bungy rope to the world. So he flew to France and snuck up the Eiffel Tower at night. The next morning he jumped off the Eiffel tower using his bungy rope. His crazy plan made people really excited to try this new adventure sport!
Nowadays there are many kinds of adventure sports in New Zealand. Another one is called the “Nevis Swing'' which is the world's biggest swing! When you ride it, you fall for 70 meters then swing for 300 meters! You can even ride this one together with a friend!
If you would like to watch a video on the bungy, please take a look at this YouTube video:
This time I will introduce to you some hiking / walking spots in the South Island of New Zealand.
If you like adventures, you can go on one of the many Great Walks through forests, parks, hills or mountains. There are short walks around 40 minutes or long hikes that can take from 2-5 days! There are all sorts of beautiful hiking trails for people of any level!
The first picture on this blog post is a picture from the top of the Rapaki Track on the Port Hills which is one of the most popular walks in Christchurch city. You can walk, run or mountain bike up this short 45-minute trail. From the top of this track, you can see the neighbouring town of Lyttleton.
The second picture is of another walking track near Christchurch called the “Big Tree Walk”. This walk goes through a native forest (a forest made of trees only found in New Zealand) where you can see gigantic Totara trees, this one is almost three meters across, and is thought to be about 1,000 years old.
