How will you be paying? By cantaloupe!

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Originally uploaded by me-spirit.

The 6000 yen cantaloupe (click to enlarge the photo) costs a little more than $50US! Norv started to express costs in terms of 'cantaloupe' as in "the hotel costs two and a quarter cantaloupe", "the dinner is 1 cantaloupe per person". He thought we should have packed local cantaloupe and use it as currency.

The fruit in Japan was so perfect looking and blemish free. Why is a cantaloupe or other "high-end fruit" so expensive and perfect? Gift-giving plays a large role in Japanese culture and high-end fruit carries auspicious symbolic meaning. We spied more expensive fruit at the depachika food emporiums ($100 and up) and later on in Kyoto, some extremely expensive cherries ($148US or almost two and a half cantaloupe).

Maybe we'll give Fumiko-san and Greg local cantaloupes and cherries for Christmas. You think that'll fly?