Because Japan is a country unlike any other, let me tell you a few facts that you’ll really like—and don’t be surprised.

Men there don’t buy Valentine’s gifts like we do. Their custom is that the woman is the one who buys a gift for the man as an expression of her love, not like here where she asks about her gift first.

Meat and fish are cheap, but fruit is very expensive in Japan. For example, one apple costs about $2, meaning a kilo of apples can reach around 300 Egyptian pounds. As for watermelon, only wealthy people buy it there, because a single watermelon can cost up to $200. Imagine someone buying a watermelon on the way home from work—it would cost him about 3,600 pounds.

Pornographic movies there are legally sold like any normal product, and there is strong demand for them. To the extent that most shops allocate special sections and shelves to display them for sale—even in grocery stores.

They eat dolphins and make soup from them that is served among seafood dishes.

In the metro, they have women-only cars, even though harassment rates there are almost nonexistent.

When work hours end, no one leaves until managers allow them to. Not only that, some employees wait until the managers leave first, then they go out.

The academic year is not two semesters like here—it’s three: first, second, and third. School starts in April.

Punctuality there is extremely strict and precise. It’s known that the only reason the metro might be delayed is if someone committed suicide under the train wheels. Suicide rates in Japan are known to be very high, and a person may commit suicide for very trivial reasons.

There is a term in Japan that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the world: “death from overwork,” or in Japanese, Karoshi. This is because it’s known that about 10,000 workers die annually in Japan due to work.

Girls’ school uniforms must include skirts, and trousers are not allowed (very respectful, indeed). But the strange thing is that the skirt length gets shorter as the girl gets older.

Horse meat is eaten raw without any cooking. It’s sliced thinly and eaten as is.

There is no foreign labor in Japan, because Japanese law requires companies that hire foreign workers to pay them a salary higher than the average Japanese employee’s salary.

The Gregorian months like January, February, March, and so on are not called by names there. They simply give them numbers: Month 1, Month 2, Month 3, and so on.

There is no pension for employees after they leave service.

“Ladies first” is a rejected principle there—the opposite is true. That’s why in shops and restaurants, if a man and a woman are standing, priority is given to men.

Tipping, or giving extra money, if given to any worker there, is considered a big insult—not like here, where many jobs are basically invented just to squeeze a tip out of you.