For anyone looking to find the most perfectly-formed juicy set of unblemished melons.. they do exist and they're very real, but expect to pay a premium price! In Japan, there is an obsession over "perfect" fruits, which are commonly purchased to give away as gifts. It's hard for visitors to believe that anyone would pay hundreds of dollars for a single melon, but apparently much labour-intensive care is taken to ensure these fruits grow up into flawless, smooth, evenly patterned exhibits - it's essentially an art form!
We managed to find a few examples of the expensive fruits. To get the price in US dollars, you can more or less divide by 100.
For example, these are $32 watermelons
And here's what $40 cantaloupes looks like
compared to the $130 cantaloupes, which have "nicer" webbing patterns and a perfectly T-shaped stem.
If you look closely, you can see that the $28 sets of strawberries are hand picked to all have an identical colour, shape, and size.
If you're willing to eat the fruit "rejects", you can also buy them at a (relatively) reasonable price :) :).
