Unnatural Fruits Of Japan
I must have spent too much time in Japan, because the last time I passed my local Super Expensive Fruit Store (where they always ask if you’d like your purchase gift wrapped!), I actually found myself wishing I’d been invited somewhere that would require a gift of produce that’s as pricey as a good bottle of champagne. I badly wanted to appear on someone’s doorstep with this square watermelon!
Of course, at first I was suspicious that it was a scary new experiment in genome tampering, but it turns out they just grow them in molds! In fact, this dominatrix-like fruit training isn’t confined to watermelons! Check out the Deco Cucumber:
•
Read a novel set in Tokyo…
Categories
Jonelle Patrick View All
Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!
Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan 
Bonsai vegetables!
I mean, not exactly, but the impulse behind these vegetables seems similar to the impulse behind bonsai.
I never thought of it like that! You could be right. I sort of thought it might be one of the more extreme examples of cuteness in the lunchtime bento box wars, but the bending of fruits and veggies to one’s will IS a sort of bonsai…
They have Mickey Mouse ones in Orlando.
Oh, I badly want to see those! Was it cucumbers? Or other fruit/veggies? When I googled this subject to see if there were any examples I hadn’t seen in person, I found a guy in China who grows pears into the shape of baby Buddhas. Since it was China, it sadly didn’t belong on my Japan blog, but it was kind of amazing!
Bizarre. Odd. And funny.
I think so too! I kind of want to find where they sell those cucumber molds, since they’d make such great Xmas presents to various friends and family in the States!