pepero day

happy pepero day everyone. it seems 11/11 in korea is pepero day. much like valentine's day kids in korea give out peperos to their friends and loved ones. just what is pepero you ask. well, peperos are those long, thin biscuits dipped in chocolate. i'm sure anyone who has been to japantown in san francisco or has visited a candy store or asian shop has seen these tastey little treats. last weekend while at the coex i saw tons of people buying these things and i couldn't figure out way. now i know. for those of you who love a little history here's a story i found online about pepero.

Pepero Day sweet for food retailers

November 06, 2004 ㅡ Stores are stocking up on Pepero, a popular snack, and driving up the cookie maker's sales as Nov. 11, Pepero Day, draws near. Lotte Confectionary Co., which owns the Pepero brand, said yesterday that last month, it sold 13 billion won's ($11.7 million) worth of the snack to food retailers."As a single product, this is the highest sales we've seen, second only to Xylitol gum. Sales of Pepero have seen double-digit growth since 2000," said PR official Ahn Sung-keun.

The Pepero snack is a replica of Pocky, the Japanese treat of chocolate-dipped cookie sticks. The 11th of November is known as Pepero Day, because "11/11" looks like four sticks.Pepero Day supposedly started in 1994 at a girls' middle school in Busan, where students exchanged Pepero sticks, wishing each other to become as tall and slender as a Pepero. But some suspect that Pepero Day was actually dreamed up by Lotte's marketing team.

Today, it is an unofficial holiday celebrated mostly by children and couples, like Valentine's Day (another "holiday" some cynics say was created by a marketing team). Pepero Day became so popular that Japan had a similar day for Pocky in 1999.
Meanwhile, vendors, who are not so interested in the origin of the holiday as they are in promoting it, are beefing up on promotional events.

Pepero costs between 500 to 700 won a box, but for Pepero Day, retailers combine the choco-covered sticks with other goodies. Interpark, a large online shopping mall, has come up with special gift packages that include various flavors of Pepero and other sweets that range from 10,000 won to 30,000 won.

Minigold, a jewelry chain, is selling necklaces and earrings with Pepero-shaped charms, and the bakery Tous les Jour is featuring a chocolate-coated Pepero Baguette. Film promoters are also using the day to attract the young customers. "Hana and Alice," a teen film from Japan, is holding a special Pepero Day screening. The romantic comedy "Laws of Attraction" also has a Pepero Day screening and dinner event for couples.

you got to love a holiday that wishes young teenage girls to be tall and slender like the pepero. so if any of you know where to buy these tastey snacks i highly recommend you buy a box or two and give them to friends and loved ones. i know that once i return to the states i'll continue this new found holiday. forget valentine's day folks its all about the pepero.

two of my students today gave me some peperos. well actually i had to quilt sally into giving me one but my new student kevin gave both sammy and myself a box. looks like he'll receive an "a" this month. sometimes being a teacher is so great.

this morning i started my workout. i walked up and down 12 flights of stairs for a half hour. i not sure but i think there are at least 100 steps. i'm going to count them tomorrow. it was hard. and i think the cleaning ladies who i passed four times thought i was crazy. afterwards i walked around the roof for 10 minutes. it actually felt good to be exercising in the morning once again although it so hard getting up that early.

i transwired money into my american bank account this morning. how international does that sound. sammy came with since this was my first time doing it. some things are such a chore. i had to have my passport, pay stub, foreign card, bank address, etc. the whole process took about a half hour. hopefully everything will work out. i guess i'll know in a couple of days whether or not the funds end up in my account or if i accidentally sent them to someone else. wouldn't that be great. next time i'm going to try it on my own. that should be fun. the teller told me that i had to get some kind of special tax thing. i'm not really sure what she's talking about and trying to ask the people at work and getting a straignt answer is like talking to the door. but at least i got pepero. that makes everything worth it.

i literally got my ass kicked today in tae kwon do. for the last twenty minutes of class we spent it sparring. my first opponent was ryan who's a purple belt. he managed to hit me in the face three times. i don't think i made contact with him once. my next sparring partner was master shin. talk about an uneven match. i was too busy blocking and protecting myself the whole time i didn't even throw one punch or kick. that was tough. the best part of class however was when i fell on my ass twice while practicing kicking. i've got so much coordination it kills me. after class everyone was talking about going to the night club on friday. i tried my hardest to get out of it but somehow found myself agreeing to go. god help me. the last thing i want to do on friday is hang out with the master and classmates. the new student is driving me crazy. he's constanstly running his trap yet he has nothing interesting to say. as ryan said, "good thing he's not american."

i'll be sure to take my camera for friday nights outing with the tae kwon do group. i'm sure there will be plenty of good photo ops. time for this white belter to go to bed. until next time…