Two Melons Just Sold for $15,730 in Japan

Guess the Japanese economy is picking up? On Friday, two Yubari melons, weighing over 8 pounds, sold for 1.6 million yen (US$ 15,730). That's a couple grand more than last year's priciest melons. Things are looking up!

What's more, this is the third highest price ever paid for Yubari melons, AP reports.

Typical melons are certainly not this expensive. And while AP reports that Japan is a country "where a single apple can cost more than $ 5", the news service doesn't mention that apples typically cost between a dollar-fifty and two bucks in Japan.

That's still kind of expensive, yes, but the vast majority of people are not shelling out thousands of bucks for fruit—heck, they're not even shelling out hundreds of bucks. (They are buying two dollar apples, though.)

Like wine and truffles, expensive melons are a status symbol for the country's extremely wealthy. As previously mentioned, the hundred dollar Yubari melons are sold at swanky department stores as gifts; they are different from the "cheaper" melons sold at local supermarkets.

This year's high melon prices seem to show that the rich, at least, are optimistic about the country. Oh, and that they like melons.

Luxury cantaloupe melons in Japan fetch US$ 15,730 [Channel News Channel]

Photo: artemisphoto | Shutterstock

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Via Nova Crystallis comes word that Square Enix filed a trademark on April 24, 2013 in Japan for "FI

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Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

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This fall, fighting game franchise BlazBlue is getting an animated series in Japan called BlazBlue A

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To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

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Konami Explains Why Metal Gear Rising Isn't on The Xbox 360 in Japan

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While speaking on the HideChan Radio podcast, Kojima Productions producer Yuji Korekado mentioned that Rising was originally announced for Japan. "However, around last year, Xbox 360 sales didn't really grow [in Japan]," added Korekado.

Meaning? That while outside Japan, the console has racked up impressive sales numbers, in Japan, a country where the Xbox 360 has always struggled, the console began doing worse.

The marketing plan for Japan included several hundred thousand copies of Rising for the PS3. The number for the Xbox 360 was, from the sound of it, much, much less.

"Bwah? I thought [after seeing the projected figures]," Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima said on his podcast. "And if we did release that [number in Japan], there's was talk that it would be rough on the brand." It sounds like there was concern that low sales figures for the Xbox 360 version could somehow reflect poorly on the game in Japan.

But Xbox 360 owners in Japan wanted the title, and Rising's developers wanted to make sure that Japanese Xbox 360 owners could play it, so a solution was devised: Rising's Western version of actually has Japanese subtitles so that Japanese Xbox 360 owners can import the game and play it in their native language. That's thoughtful!

In the same podcast, Kojima went on to talk about how there were plans for a PC version of Rising.

第３１２回 [HideChan]

To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.

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