$3,600 for a Melon?

A news release today announced the auction of the first Yubari melons of this year. It was a new record for the first of this fruit to be sold in a season:

SAPPORO, May 17 KYODO
A pair of Japan's famous Yubari melons fetched 800,000 yen, the highest price on record, as the first bidding of the season got under way Wednesday at Sapporo's main wholesale market, JA Yubarishi, a local agricultural cooperative in Yubari, Hokkaido, said.The figure surpassed the previous record set last year of 600,000 yen.

Regardless of what exchange rate you use, these first 2 specialty cantaloupe melons of the season came in around $7,300, or around $3,600 each!

These are special melons that are normally given as a gift to special friends, customers, bosses, etc. These melons are known as the king of melons in Japan and are specially grown, harvested, handled, and packaged to be a top-level gift. The presentation of the melons in stores is always immaculate and nearly shrine-like. The melon sits on a pedestal with tissue paper carefully bunched beneath it. A small portion of the stem always remains protruding from the top, perfectly trimmed so that it achieves a symmetrical T-shape. The label of the melon grower is affixed somewhere near its center so that the buyer can easily see if the brand is Yubari or any of the over 50 others produced in Japan. Sometimes a wood box sits nearby to conveniently allow for packaging up that gift for someone special. Needless to say, a family doesn’t walk into the store and buy one of these for dinner.

Japan is very accustomed to giving gifts at certain times of the year, like spring, summer, and winter. Special displays are set up in stores to display various gift items of almost every type of food, which are always delicately handled, packed and displayed. The normal in-store price for the Yubari melons ranges from $90-$130 each, depending on their quality, packaging, time of the growing season, the store’s purchasing volume, which grower they came from, and so on.

Interestingly, the seeds for these special melons are imported from the US and UK each year. The locally produced seeds have not proven to be usable.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day the boys took Mio to a sushi lunch, then made dinner for her, then had some fancy desserts. A yummy day!

Daddy Friendly Public Restroom

Here's a pic of a stall in a men's room in a new train station. This stall has a baby seat bolted to the wall in case the daddy needs to put the baby somewhere while he uses the facility. And in case the daddy doesn't know how to put the baby in the seat, there are illustrated instructions directly above the seat.

This stall also has a diaper changing table that folds down from the wall. This is still a very rare thing to find in a men's restroom here.

View of Tokyo Tower From My Office

Here's a pic of Tokyo Tower taken from the 15th floor of my office. It's about a 10 minute walk from my office.

The Platform Sleeper

This was the first day back to work after the 9 day Golden Week vacation. I took this pic at my local train station on the way to work. Obviously this guy needed a vacation from his vacation.

Tokyo Tower

Today Michael and I went to Tokyo Tower. Mio and Tommy are in the USA. We spent all day there as Tokyo Tower contained many fun things to do: observation decks at 492 feet and 820 feet, Guinness World Records Museum, carnival area, game area, Trick Art Gallery, food courts, and many other shops, activities and attractions. We were there from 9:45 AM until after 6 PM and probably only saw 3/4 of it.

Here are some pics. Tokyo was listed in the museum as the largest city in the world with 26.3 million people.

Golden Week

This week is Golden Week in Japan. Basically it is a week when there are several holidays close to each other. Rather than work a day, take one off, work another, take another off, the Japanese just take the whole week off. Here are the holidays:

Midori no hi (Greenery Day) April 29: It used to be the celebration of the birthday of the late Emperor Showa. After his death in 1989, it was designated as a day for the appreciation of nature. It was decided to change the name of this day to "Showa no hi" as of 2007.

This day leads Japan into Golden Week. When Saturdays and Sundays are included, this week becomes one of the longest holidays of the year. The weather is warm and suitable for excursions at this time, therefore many Japanese make trips during Golden Week and it is one of the busiest travel times.

Kenpo kinenbi (Constitution Day) May 3: The present Constitution of Japan was put into effect on this day in 1947.

Kokumin no kyujitsu (National Holiday) May 4: It was decided that this day should be a national holiday because it falls between two holidays. I like this kind of thinking.

Kodomo no hi (Children's Day) May 5: A day to wish for the health and happiness of children. Originally known as boy's day, it is now a celebration of all children. Much like Girl's Day (Hinamatsuri) in March, dolls for boys are put on display in homes. The dolls are patterned after warriors and heroes.

Carp are another symbol of Children's Day. The carp represent strength (known to swim up waterfalls), and success in life. An ancient practice of bathing with flag plant leaves is also observed on this day; it is said to have medicinal values. It is also important on this day to make offerings of Japanese confections: rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves.

Here are 2 pics of these doll sets for boys. I took these at the local department store. These are quite expensive. One set above is about $1,370 and the other one is about $800. These are not toys. They are for display only.

Pics By Michael

I broke down recently and went to the electronic mecca here called Akihabara to get a small, pocket sized digital camera. After a couple of hours scouring shops for the best deal Michael and I bought the Casio EX-Z600. So, here are some pics.

Michael and Tommy wanted to get old-fashioned Japanese pajamas, so we agreed. Here is Michael in new jammies.

Also, Michael took some pics of our bathing room. Japanese have separate toilets and bathing rooms. The bathing room is all plastic, so you can splash and get water everywhere. You clean outside of the tub and then get in and soak once you are clean. It feels really good to soak on cold days.

In the bath tub you can see the cover that goes on it when we leave the water in it. It keeps the water warmer longer.