I was in the historic town of Kanazawa in Japan. I got up early and spent the morning in the wonderful Kenrokuen Gardens, often in heavy snow. In the afternoon I toured round Kanazawa Castle and as it was starting to get dark, climbed down the hill to the town centre. Kanazawa was not bombed during the war and there are wonderful narrow side streets including an old samurai quarter. I found the pink and white fluffy things in a shop on the main street and couldn't leave there without taking a few pictures.
Since it is such an historic town it seems reasonable that these must have historic associations. There were battles around Kanazawa in the Momoyama or Warring States period at the end of the sixteenth century. Probably the samurai roared into battle in full armour on their war steeds with one of these fluffy objects tied to the top of their war helmets, as a token of their undying love for someone and to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. Perhaps the winning side adorned themselves thus and that's why you might find them in a shop on the main street centuries later.
I'm not sure whether I've seen one of these machines since the 60s where you put a coin in a slot, lower a mechanical claw in the giant fishtank and try to extract a prize. Perhaps the Valentine's Day association refers to mating practices in Kanazawa. It could mean that there's a special day in spring where the young men of the town get put into a giant fishtank and young women can pay money to see whether they can snare one with a giant mechanical claw. The young men might need to be blindfolded and bound, otherwise, depending on the young woman, they might all by trying to escape from the claw or they might all try to jump onto it, causing the mechanism to break, the claw to fall and the tank to shatter.
I have to admit I didn't try to fish for one of those fluffy pink and white things. And when I posted the image while in Japan I was warned not to bring one home.
Here is another one, perhaps not quite so weird but still quite strange. A bit more anthropomorphic, this time: