A while back, I stumbled upon a photo essay about an apple orchard in Japan that kind of gives a good example of the kind of hard work that people put into growing luxury fruit.

Blossoms are pollinated by hand, using tiny wands; every apple is placed in its own, individual paper bag to protect it from the elements; and little stencils are applied to each apple so they bear little kanji.

Photo by Jane Alden Stevens.

And this particular orchard isn’t some sort of anomaly. Both The New York Times and the BBC have covered Japanese farms that cultivate high-end fruit.

As a result of the great care people put into cultivating fruit, the price tag can sometimes be a bit of a shock. High-end melons can sell for outrageous prices (as expensive as $6,000 for a single melon).

But beyond Japan’s luxury fruit market, there’s also a lot of common, everyday fruit in Japan that you’ll be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Some are rarities that occur naturally in Japan; others, specifically engineered to taste delicious or look just the right way.

Akebi

The Akebi might look almost like an eggplant, but it’s actually a pretty curious fruit. Native to the northern Tohoku region of Japan, people didn’t start seriously cultivating the akebi until pretty recently.

Beneath the purple skin (which opens naturally when wild akebi are ripe) is the strange fruit. It looks like a small, milky-white banana.

(“Small, milky-white banana,” by the way, is a phrase I hope I never write again.)

The taste is sadly, apparently unremarkable. And the texture is a bit strange, as Kyoto Foodie explains:

The look and feel is similar to the flesh of lychee, but is much softer. And, it is full of tiny seeds that are essentially impossible to separate from the flesh…The flesh is best slurped up seeds and all. If the seeds are chewed, the taste becomes bitter. Just eat it like you would yogurt or thick fruit smoothie.

Sure, the akebi might not taste incredible, but I still think it’s pretty cool that akebi are so distinctive and hard to find outside of Japan.

Dekopon

On its surface, the dekopon is a pretty boring fruit – it basically just looks like an orange. But there’s more to it than that. Dekopon is uniquely Japanese – it’s actually a hybrid of two other citrus fruits engineered in Japan during the 70s. And while it looks like a regular ol’ orange, it’s larger and sweeter than your everyday Florida-grown citrus.

Probably the coolest thing about the dekopon, oddly enough, is its etymology – where the name came from. The kanji for deko is 凸. With the little bump at the top, it looks like a miniature picture of a dekopon, doesn’t it?

Sadly for those of us in the United States, the dekopon wasn’t available in the US until just last year. As it turns out, importing a fruit from abroad is a fiasco when it comes to obtaining the rights and making sure the fruit doesn’t completely annihilate the native ecosystem.

And, even more unfortunately, dekopon is basically only available in California for the time being (under the new name “sumo”), meaning I haven’t had a chance to taste one yet. Will I make the eight hour drive down to the Golden State for a sample? Time will tell.

Square Watermelon

There’s probably no more famous fruit in Japan than the square (technically, cubic) watermelon. Developed in the 70s by Japanese farmers who were hoping to create an easier way to store and ship melons, these melons are placed in cubic, glass containers and grow to fill the space.

While the goal of these watermelons was to make them more convenient, it turns out that growing cubic watermelons is harder than growing regular melons. On the upside, these novelty fruits are really popular, and farmers can charge out the rear for them. Sure, they taste the same, but they’re cubic!

Hyuganatsu

The hyuganatsu has kind of a weird history. Unlike other fruit, which have either been around for as long as people remember of have been actively engineered, the hyuganatsu was just sort of discovered. In 1820, people found a tree with a fruit that had never been seen before.

People now speculate that hyuganatsu is a naturally occurring hybrid of yuzu and pomelo. As Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park says, “life finds a way.”

As with dekopon, hyuganatsu is, for the most part, simply another citrus fruit. It’s yellow with a slightly sour taste – in fact, people recommend that you eat hyuganatsu with some sugar just so it isn’t too sour.

But, as far as I could tell, hyunganatsu is uniquely Japanese. There aren’t names for it in other languages and I don’t think that it’s grown anywhere else. It might not be the tastiest thing in the world, but it is very Japanese.

Have you tried any of these fruits? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!

[Header image source.]

A year or two ago, Japanese square shaped watermelon were big in the news. Not only were they easier to ship, but they were more expensive too, and that catches anyone’s attention. Today, I read an article over at Megaijin, that talked about triangular shaped watermelon (even more expensive, but more difficult to ship, I imagine). This sparked my interest, so I decided to dive a little deeper. You’ll be amazed at the weird watermelon-related things I’ve come across!

Cube-Shaped Watermelon

First, let’s take a look at the original strange Japanese watermelon: “The Cube.” This was an expensive solution to the difficulty that people had putting a big round watermelon in their refrigerator (why refrigerate, though, I say eat it all!).

Supposedly, only around a 1000 of these are produced in a year, though I feel like that number may have increased. It’s garnered notoriety amongst the rich (as well as several visiting political figures), and is pretty darn expensive. As you can see above, 2008 version goes for around $119 USD, which is cheap compared to some of the other watermelons we’re going to get into. Who knows how much shipping will cost you. Here’s another photo, from Choo.

I really wonder how the square watermelons taste. Is it just the novelty of the shape that’s selling them, or are they particularly juicy? Either way, if I was Scrooge McDuck I’d definitely replace my simming pool of gold coins.

Oh yeahh, check out those photoshop skillz (sarcasm)

Heart Shaped Watermelon

So now we get a little more expensive, and a lot more useless. I suppose this could shape up (haha, get it?) to be an expensive romantic gift of some sort, but I think buying a week’s worth of baseball tickets would be more fun.

A heart-shaped watermelon will run you around $237 USD, a price that will end up breaking your…you know. I’d suggest saving your money and spending it on UFO catchers.

Pyramid and Triangle Shaped Watermelon

Now, here’s where I get a little confused. Let’s start with the Triangle shaped watermelon, because, apparently, there’s some sort of big difference between triangle and pyramid shapes. Aren’t they just different words for triangle?

These “triangle watermelon” will run you the same as a heart watermelon, around $237 USD. I’m not sure what the purpose of these watermelon are, besides the novelty. Square watermelons, sure, they ship nicer and are easier to put in the fridge. Triangle watermelon? They just seem hard to ship and hard to eat.

Now, how about the pyramid shaped ones? From what I can see, they are almost exactly the same. The only difference? The ridiculous price.

Ever considered paying $950 USD for a watermelon? Well, now’s your chance. They only make a few of these a year (which, I suppose, is why the price is so high?), and they look like crummier versions of the triangle watermelon, at least to my untrained watermelon eye. I dunno, what do you think? They better taste better, that’s for sure.

Face Shaped Watermelon

Here’s the one that you all came for. This is the most ridiculous watermelon I’ve ever seen, and I would never be alone in a dark room with this one.

This face-watermelon will cost you $475 USD, but, I mean, c’mon, it’s a face! It even has glasses on and a big smile, so you feel good when you eat through half your month’s rent. It’s a smile that says…”it’s okay, I still love you…even though you’re a dumb knee-biter for buying me.”

Looks like this one has a Hitler mustache!

How are these Watermelon Made?

Well, the face one is a secret process, apparently. Though it follows the same basic rules as the others. All they do is put a glass / plastic container around the small, baby watermelon, and it grows into the shape it’s put into. Cube shaped is put into a cube container, triangle into a triangle container, etc. They  do something extra fancy with the Hitler face though, but they aren’t willing to taddle their secrets.

If you’d like to get one of these watermelon for yourself, you can actually get them shipped to you overseas (maybe). Check out Rakuten’s Art Suika page and look for the English section somewhere in the middle. You might be able to order your own overpriced watermelon if you email them.

Vocab for this Article

Something I thought I’d try to do, since this is a website about learning Japanese culture and language. We’re going to include some vocabulary at the end of every news / culture related article to give you a chance to sponge some Japanese vocabulary as well. I mean, why not, right?

スイカ (suika)
Watermelon

果物 (Kudamono)
Fruit

三角 (Sankaku)
Triangle

四角 (shikaku)
Square