Black Friday sales in the U.S, Boxing Day sales in Canada, the UK, and Australia and now it is the turn for Fukubukuro (lucky bag or a mystery bag) sales in Japan. Apple announced that seven of its stores in Japan will participate in the Fukubukuro sales in January.

Fukubukuro is a Japanese New Year's Day custom where retailers offer lucky or mystery bags filled with unknown random contents and sell them at a substantial discount to customers. The contents of the bag may be discounted substantially from the list price of the items contained within. Retailers sell the mystery bags at low price to attract customers to their shops during the new-year.

Seven Apple stores in Japan will also offer mystery bags to customers on Jan. 2.

"If you're not familiar with this sale, it's essentially a very expensive grab bag of goodies from the Apple store, priced at 33,000 yen (or about $390). It usually includes things things like iPods, headphones, and accessories, but sometimes lucky shoppers will hit the big time and get a Macbook or an iPad, which pushes the value way past the price of the bag. Last year there were also Apple T-shirts, and even the bag itself looks sort of cool. I predict more than a few customers will see iPad Minis this year too," reported Tech In Asia.

Customers who want to grab the mystery bags will definitely have to line up in-front of the participating Apple stores and similar to Black Friday, people typically begin lining up at the Apple store the night before.

As customers do not know what they are paying for, the content inside the bag may also bring disappointment for some. Apple's terms of condition (translated) states that one person can buy only one lucky bag in a day and the product inside the lucky bag cannot be exchanged unless there is hardware or accessories defect.

If you are in Japan, then don't miss out on the Apple 'mystery bag'.