In Japan, Valentines Day is not the same. Instead the day is called Giri choco day, roughly translated to “Obligation Chocolate day”. Women must give chocolate to their bosses and important men (husband, boyfriend) in their lives to thank them. Then today (March 14th), we have White Day where men must give back gifts to anyone who gave them chocolate. The key to this ritual is the small print:

sanbai gaeshi (三倍返し^?, literally, “triple the return”) is used to describe the generally recited rule that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine’s gift.

Crazy. I have elected to not participate.