Screenshot: ANNnewsCH
This weekend, a set of two Yubari melons fetched a record-breaking 3.2 million yen ($38,778) at auction in Hokkaido, Japan.
According to Mainichi News, these melons went for more than the previous record-holding pair, which sold for 3 million yen in 2016.
“I wanted to make a record-setting bid by all means,” said winning bidder Shinya Noda, a vegetable packaging company president.
Screenshot: ANNnewsCH
Mainichi reports that the luxury fruit will be on display until the month’s end. After that, the melons will be sliced up and given to Noda’s customers, free of charge.
Late spring is when people in Japan begin buying natsu no gifuto (summer gift) for customers and clients. Typical summer gifts include beer, cookies and expensive fruit, the last of which might reach as high as a couple hundred bucks for mangos and cherries. The Hokkaido melon auction is at the ultra-premium end of the scale, with the purchase not only reflecting the excellent fruit quality, but also the health of the Japanese economy.
Comments
10 responses to “Two Melons Just Sold For $38,778 In Japan”
Just wonder how is video game news?
This is probably the otaku part of kotaku. This is like 83% relevant.
If you’re a melon or fruit otaku sure but outside of that it is more or less discussing the price of eggs in China (Or fruit in Japan as is the case) and would really only qualify for the small segment of nerd-dom that has an interest in Japanese culture. At best you could say this is targeting weebs, not otaku (by Western definition).
It’s more leaning towards the ‘otaku’ side I bet.
So is this basically just an expensive rockmelon?
Sort of, it’s a cross breed.
Only melons from that particular region can be called Yubari melons and they produce only a handful of fruit at that quality per year.
By all accounts the taste is unique.
Ah ok cool. I was kind of expecting them to be square melons at that price :p
Oh hell yeah, I would expect devil fruit powers for that price.
And politicians complain about our avocado.
Man, this is like an episode of Get Backers.