Valentines Day In Japan: 1 reason why it's very different.

For those of you who unaware of this interesting phenomena in Japan, this might be interesting.

In Japan, the tradition is for women to express their love to a man by giving them chocolate. No flowers, no gifts,  just chocolate from women to men.

There are 2 types of chocolates women give on this day in Japan - "real" chocolate ("honmei") and "fake" chocolate ("giri").

• GIRI chocolates are bought in stores and are given to friends, coworkers and families.
  
• HONMEI chocolates are usually handmade and are only gifted to the woman's love.

Now this becomes a huge deal in middle school and high school. You often here boys/men bragging about how many "Honmei" chocolates they received. 

But wait - So what does the man do?
.....He has White Day (March 14), to give back.

It seems like Valentines Day started and became popular in the 1950s in Japan, through at a Department store marketing scheme. They simply put "For a lady to give to their man" on one of the ads.