you're traveling to another world a world not only of sights and sounds but of culture
a journey into the wondrous land of the rising sun your next stop japan hello internet i hope
you enjoyed that intro and if you're interested in learning what valentine's day looks like in japan
then prepare yourself because the information i'm about to share with you might seem like
an alternate reality but it is in fact in your own welcome to valentine's day in japan
all jokes aside valentine's day in japan is actually pretty different than other regions
in the world and it might be because of its origins you see valentine's day didn't even
really reach japan until 1936 and it wasn't even popular until 1950 to 1970
when department stores saw a unique opportunity to use this holiday to bring in some massive income
and they were very successful in their endeavor when they made valentine's day into a major
chocolate selling holiday in the country it was kind of like how kfc took over christmas in japan
you know if that sounds weird then yeah check out this video right here where i talk about
that a little bit more in depth yeah because it it does sound weird when you don't have the context
and although kfc taking over christmas sounds crazy valentine's day has its own little twist
to the holiday as well that makes it different from any other place in the world and the thing
that makes it different is on valentine's day in japan girls give chocolate to the guys
and the guys don't really do anything it's still a holiday about loving your special someone but
it's also just kind of weird because the girls are doing everything for the guys and the guys
don't really do anything for this holiday they can but they don't usually however
those sneaky department stores didn't leave guys completely off the hook because
a month later on march 14th there's another holiday called white day and on this holiday
guys are expected to buy gifts for any girls that got them special chocolate
and those gifts are supposed to cost up to up to three times as much as whatever was spent on them
you know maybe this switcheroo on valentine's day isn't good for guys so it's not just girls giving
chocolate to guys that makes it kind of weird there's also different types of chocolate that can
be given to guys and i'm not talking brands i'm talking about like different ranks of chocolate
for different types of people in your life take a look at these first is giri choko and it literally
translates to obligation chocolate so this isn't chocolate you just give to every single person
it's kind of chocolate that you give to like your family your friends and people that you care about
but not necessarily in a valentine's day day kind of way so this is for people that you love but
not as a romantic partner next is honmei choko now homei choku is reserved for that special guy that
you have a crush on or it's reserved for somebody that you're already in a relationship with
and traditionally honmei choco was actually hand made it's not just chocolate that you
would go out and buy and then give to the person it's something that you would put effort into
and that's because in japan effort is highly valued and so it makes it special but nowadays
a lot of people see honmei choco that's handmade as going a little bit too far it's a little bit
much for somebody that you just have a crush on however if you were already in a relationship or
you know if you're married you could still make homemade chocolate oh fine i was kidding
and in more recent years those sneaky department stores are sneaking even
more categories of chocolate into the holiday such as fami choko tomo choko
and even mai choko so as department stores continue to grow in power and the people of japan
continue to be suppressed by a growing number of corporate holidays and obligatory gift giving
would you smash that like button if you found this video informative or entertaining
also leave a comment about what you think about valentine's day or about
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that you can get japan related content from us immediately when it comes out here at dq
we're all about helping you experience japan so thank you so much for watching this video and dq
out