Expensive honeydew in Tokyu Foodshow @ Shibuya, Japan

On my recent trip to Japan, I have chance to go around their famous underground food court also known as depachika in Japanese. They sells many kind of food stuff and I like the way they do promotion on their product. The food display nicely & neat in a bright & clean environment. The Japanese are very courteous people. Although Tokyo were ranked as the most expensive city on earth, its still worth a visit and the quality of food items that you get can't actually compared with anywhere else. A visit to Tokyu Food Show on the basement of Tokyu departmental store in Shibuya, I notice that some of the food items especially fruits sold at an exorbitant prices. A honeydew for example, can even reach more than USD150 or 10,000 Yen. This is equal to almost RM400 in Malaysia! At that time, I only notice that the honeydew is particularly round in shape and the skin is quite uniform.

I am curious on why this melon is particularly expensive. I found an article on the Net, which mentioned that the melon is actually brought as a gift to an important client, to a person to whom a debt of gratitude is owed, or to a sick friend as a get-well gesture. For Japanese, they usually don’t eat the very best for themselves. They set it aside for others as a gift.

The most prized melon plants is assume as the same as an ancient Bonsai tree. They’re farmed in specially-designed greenhouses in select locations throughout Japan, in which the air is conditioned and the moisture level of the soil is carefully moderated. Melon vines are trimmed to allow only three melons to grow, and when they reach a certain level of maturity, two of the three melons are cut off to allow the supreme melon all the nutrients that the vines have to give.


In this picture you can see that the honeydew were priced at 10,500 Yen, 8,400 Yen & 12,600 Yen!

Metro station: Shibuya
Location: Tokyu Department Store basement. The entrance is near Hachikō statue.
Coordinate: 35.65975,139.701741