JapanSugoi

The town of Yubari 夕張市 is known throughout Japan as the town in financial rehabilitation because it went bankrupt earlier this year. The former Mitsubishi coal mining town situated about 1.5 hours (by train) from Sapporo in Hokkaido had built several expensive infrastructure projects including a roller coaster to revive the local economy but went bust. The townspeople have gone through some tough times but at least the town have their special Yubari cantaloupe melons.

The Yubari melons are well known across Japan since they were excellently marketed since the early 1950s. The reddish orange fleshed Yubari has become a favorite corporate gift to partners and clients during summer gift giving. Large department stores sell the Yubari melons from 15,000- 100,000 Yen and over 150+ farms produce over 3 million melons for Japanese consumption.

Earlier this summer, Sapporo department store Marui Imai Inc., celebrating its 135th anniversary, outbid other bidders to purchase 2 melons at an astonishing 1million Yen each. The price beat the previous record price of 800,000 yen set last year. The two melons were put on display at Marui Imai’s flagship outlet priced at 1 million yen apiece. According to news reports one of the million yen fruits was sold but we’re not quite sure what happened to the other.

Read an excellent article from one of our favorite Japan blogs Stippy about Nestle helping the town of Yubari with their Yubari melon flavored Kit Kats. Also check out our post on Japan’s square shaped watermelons!