You’ve never seen a fruit shop quite like this one
The Japanese melon season was particularly good this year. A pair of melons from Yubari in Hokkaido sold at auction in May for 3.5 million yen ($37,600).
The record for a melon is five million yen, which makes Yubari melons, with their bright orange flesh and glossy green skin, the world’s most expensive fruit.
A pair of premium melons, produced in Yubari in Hokkaido, fetch 3.5 million yen ($25,000) in the first auction of 2023 in Sapporo.Credit: Newscom/Alamy
The Japanese spend big on fruit. Flush with cash? You could enjoy a single grape worth $530 – slightly better value than you might think, given such grapes are the size of a ping-pong ball.
That record was set by a bunch of Ruby Roman grapes that sold for 1.5 million ($16,000) yen in 2022. Ruby Romans are grown in Ishikawa prefecture by a handful of farmers under strict regulations about the grapes’ weight, sugar content and colour.
Such extravagance is usually corporate and attracts press coverage. Still, you can bust your budget on fruit at a more modest – but still outrageous – price in specialist Japanese fruit stores.
You’ll find one of them, Takano Fruit Parlour, at Shinjuku train station in Tokyo. This select fruit chain opened its first store here in 1885.
Gift wrapped with care… Takano’s Muskmelon Specialty Shop.Credit: Japan Shopping Now
Among the treats are reddish-purple Miyazaki mangoes for $300 and Sekai-Ichi apples at $40 a pop. Too much? Try a single $10 cherry or a $7 strawberry. The strawberry tastes … well, like a strawberry, although perfectly ripe and juicy and so sweet it almost seems artificial.
Upstairs in Takano, I find two boxed melons at 46,440 yen ($500) and another single one for 32,400 yen. They sit spot-lit behind glass like museum artefacts.
The presentation of the fruit is marvellous. The shop itself looks like a high-end jewellery store: marble floors, wooden shelves, mood lighting, impeccably dressed staff.
The muskmelon that Shinjuku Takano sell requires a high level of skill and a lot of labour.Credit: Takano
Each piece of fruit is individually wrapped and carefully padded, then presented in a wooden box lined with yellow silk or in a basket lined with pink tissue paper and encased in stiff cellophane.
I could buy six different fruits tied with ribbon and separated in a box by dividers like truffles – except if I did, I’d have no money left for my hotel bill. All the fruit is perfectly shaped, perfumed, plump, blemish-free and picked at the optimal moment.
Takano Fruit Shop, Tokyo.Credit: Instagram
Usually, such treasures are grown in greenhouses on plants trimmed so that only one fruit grows on a single branch to absorb maximum nutrients. Harder-skinned fruits like melons are carefully massaged, which is said to promote sweetness.
The Japanese have a liking for unusual-looking fruit, such as square or heart-shaped melons, Buddha-shaped pears (formed using moulds), or the odd-looking White Jewel strawberry, which is white with bright red seeds.
Like French wine, expensive fruit is labelled with a protected geographic indicator. In Takano’s, information labels tell you where the fruit is from and who has grown it and, like wine labels, describe the flavour.
The Japanese revere fruit. It’s more likely eaten after an elegant kaiseki meal than as a snack. Fruit is offered on Buddhist and Shinto altars and is a symbol of respect given as a prestigious gift.
Takano’s certainly takes its fruit very seriously. The Japanese attend workshops here to learn how to cut fruit like sashimi; the knife work affects texture and flavour.
Shinjuku Takano Strawberries sell online for as much as 5940 yen ($60).Credit: Takano
Well-dressed ladies come for fruit cakes and desserts put together by female-only chefs in white. If the season is right, try a mango parfait. It costs a mere $21, and the thinly sliced mango is folded like a work of art – not record-breaking art, but still a chic experience.
THE DETAILS
More
gotokyo.org
Fly
JAL flies from Sydney to Tokyo Haneda and from Melbourne to Tokyo Narita. See jal.co.jp
See
Takano Fruit Parlour is open 11am-8pm daily at 3-26-11 Shinjuku. There are other Takano stores across Tokyo and Japan. See takano.jp
Stay
ANA InterContinental Tokyo offers luxury with glorious views and outstanding dining, including a Michelin-starred French and superb teppanyaki restaurant. Popular Atrium Lounge does afternoon teas with delicious fruit-topped pastries. Cascade Cafe has a summer Hokkaido fruit buffet, and Karin Chinese Restaurant a summer fruits Chinese afternoon tea. Rooms from JPY 43,200 ($460) a night. See anaintercontinental-tokyo.jp
The writer was a guest of the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau and ANA InterContinental Tokyo.
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