something has been bugging me for quite some time...what is it with japanese school kids and buttons? i don't quite understand the meaning, what i mean is...

for anyone whose seen the music video mew was in, she recieved a button from some guy and she's all happy and touched by it. lol, i don't get it! in volume one of NANA, nobu brags about how he gave all his buttons away...or SOLD them, girls wanted them so bad! and in another volume of THE WALLFLOWER, girls gush over wanting to be the lucky ones to recieve the buttons off of the uniforms of the four hottest guys in their school. i still don't freakin' get it! :blink:

i would really like to know. can someone who has good knowledge of the japanese culture explain this to me?

also, white day, another mystery to me. explain please explain!!!!! :lol:

on a side note: am i the only chick addicted to bishonen? lol i'm a stickler for hot japanese boys, LMAO :lol:

LOl okay I do not understand the Button thing so I would liek to know about that but after I got in the whole Japanese Stuff I found out that they have many holidays's more then we do in US...

February 14
Valentine's Day:
In Japan, women give chocolates to men on Valentine's Day. It is not a national holiday.

March 14
White Day:
The opposite of Valentine's Day: Men give cakes or chocolates to women. It is not a national holiday

I too have been curious about the button thing. I have that video of Mew as well. So I googled it. Wikipedia had this to say:

The second button of the top of a male's uniform is often given away to the girl who likes him, and is considered a way of confession. Other buttons may be given away if more than one girl asked for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gakuran



I guess that seems to fit with the video and those manga.



And know you are not the only only who likes the bishonen, love,keiko.

Hehhe yes I am sure most of us have teh Video, and yeah that makes since but how does a guy konw if a girl likes him if the girl doens't make it obvious?

That part still eludes me...

Ya Japanese Vday and Wday are pretty interesting... but at the same time more depressing than the american one... you see if you don't get choco thats pretty sadness in Japanese....cause like girls even give obligatory choco to like their bosses if their boss is a guy...so to get nothing... well ya... and then Wday the guys give back to the girls if they got.... I hear in Korea there is an extra day too called Blackday which is the month after Whiteday, where all the guys who don't get Vday choco gather and eat noodles with blacksauce...lol

Ya for some reason Japanese people do love their pins and stuff... I always figured that one of the pins was their grade in the school... or at least thats what it always appeared to be (I remember in Gachibaka at the beginning the guy takes off the pin which has the Highschool Kanji (the Kou) and three button pattern (like he was third year)... and then in Tenchi Muyo (I think it was, he had a II on his collar... so I was assuming he was like 2nd year... well it was my assumption but I have no clue.... I was always guessing

That surely makes more sense,

But those holiday's do sort of crack me up because it is more of a you have a HIGH chance of getting something than nothing.

oh REALLY? ahhhhh, makes sense i suppose. tho, i my personal opinion, i i guy gave me his button as a show of his affection i'd be sort of put off. lol, it's like "dude why don't you just buy me some flowers?!" lol, then again, i don't really like that either.....ahh japan so totally rocks! i really relly really want to go!

thanks for the enlightenment everyone

Haha well I guess it all depends on where we grow up and the lifestyle we live I suppose.. Since I am sure if anyone in the US were to get a button they would be like ehh you might have just gotten me nothing and I would be happier.. But yeah that is my opinion.

Well old fashion japanese wise, the japanese people are like one step back in terms of things for things... hard to explain what I mean...so here's an example...

In america the "big" affection step is kissing
In the old fashionish japan the "big" thing is holding hands, as kissing is like super major
This is because of Japanese and their thing about personal space and touching kinda stuff ya know sorta what I mean?

Similarly like in america we use to have "class rings" or whatever for when guys and girls use to go steady
in japan then the class ring is something more common but still an insignia of class... their school pin, and the emotion is one step back to... an I really like you, instead of an I want to go steady...lol...

weird but thats what I though.... again my opinion and thought...not something i've ever confirmed.

Well I suppose that would make sense if they are slightly a step back from what us in the US are at... And if you grow up in Japan I guess you would get used to that idea but then if they move to the US... things might be a tad different but they most likely would assimilate easily I think...