In Japan, consumers are ready to spend enormous sums of money on cube, heart and pyramid shaped watermelons. Specialised shops have opened for these products, which Director of a store in Tokyo, Mototaka Mishimura, explains are ornamental, “They are there to be eye pleasing, and would not have a very good taste if you decided to eat them”.
To give them their original shape they are grown inside acrylic boxes. Japan has a tradition of giving fruits as presents. A cube shaped watermelon costs about $132. A large store recently bought a Hokkaido Densuke watermelon for an astronomical $3,570 whilst cantaloupe melons reach an even higher $25,500.