After travelling I returned home to the sanitized melon of Japan. There is melon and then there is Japanese musk melon. These melons are carefully grown in Shizuoka, west of Tokyo, farmed in sophisticated green houses, complete with air-conditioners that fine-tune the temperate to optimal levels day and night.

Melon vines are planted and cultivated in a soil bedding that is separated from the ground. The soil separation is necessary to regulate moisture levels. The moisture uptake by the tree roots must be optimized to promote proper amount of photosynthesis.

Growers trim the vines so that only three melons will grow on each tree. When the baby melons grow to the size of a human fist, two are taken off to allow the most promising one to monopolize all the nourishment from the vine.

That one melon becomes a beautiful and $100+ fruit and don’t think that Japanese are sitting around the kitchen table sharing these fruits. There aren’t few countries in the world where fruits are given as gifts.