Well, it's summer again, and that means in America the watermelon patches are in full production. In my native South, you will be able to find watermelons at stands beside the road for a few dollars. American watermelons can be huge and are as sweet as any you'll find anywhere. Yes, we Americans love watermelons, but let me tell you...We are watermelon amateurs and clearly ignorant of the treasures we are sitting on while riding in the back of pick-ups. Just yesterday, a watermelon was auctioned off here for $3,765. The special point of this water melon was that it was black-skinned. Well, it may have been black-skinned, but it was puny and I don't think it was even seedless! These black-skinned watermelons are being sold in department stores. That's right...places like Macy's (does Macy's still exist?), not places like your neighborhood Piggly Wiggly. Of course, regular, ole green-skinned watermelons are sold here in grocery stores, too. They're also puny and usually cost at least $20 a piece. What's even harder to believe is that cantelopes here and what we used to call honey dew melons also commonly sell for about $50! I used to buy those in America for about 50 cents.
Now, I don't want to be too obvious, but can't some of you watermelon and cantelope growers figure out a way to get your melons here? Maybe they won't be as fancy as the black-skinned variety, but what they lack in skin color, they can make up for in size. I would think it would be worth chartering an old airplane, asking your brother-in-law to fly it and filling it up with melons if that's what you've got to do. If you can get 1,000 melons here and sell them for $15 a piece, that's...uh...a lot of money! You may also want to throw in some peaches which are also outrageously expensive here. I'm not sure what we can do to help, but you can set up a fruit stand in our parking lot for starters. We'll take our pay in melons...www.noah-digital.co.jp/english/
One of the most over-used words in Japan is "abunai!" or "dangerous!" I have often heard it used to describe the way I cut vegetables or peel an apple, for example. Many times, I have been told how dangerous my neighborhood is. After all, the business across the street was robbed...20 years ago. Japan must be the only country on earth where old women can ride their bicycles down an inner city street at 10:00 at night with no worries. While certainly not crime free, I would say violent crime against strangers is still relatively rare. For example, Japanese burglars are very unlikely to break into your house while you're at home. When they do break in, they just want cash. That's why during the economic boom, Japanese people used to leave envelopes of cash in the entrance way when they weren't at home. The burglars politely took it and left everything else alone...a kind of "win-win" for everyone.
It is interesting that though I lived and worked for 11 years in Atlanta (most of that time downtown), I was never mugged or robbed. Soon after moving to Japan, however, someone walked into my house and took my rent money. I did the natural thing and called the police. They came to the house and insisted on taking photos of me pointing to the place where I was foolish enough to leave my cash and then pointing to the sliding door I was foolish enough to leave open. My friend watched with tears of laughter running down her face. I can't say this proved to me that Japan was dangerous, just that I was careless and that the police know how to enjoy their work.
I have found another way the police have fun on the job is by suddenly jumping in front of moving cars to get them to stop. This is how they conduct seat belt checks in Nagoya. The first time it happened to me, I almost had a heart attack. Talk about dangerous! (Incidentally, we were all wearing our seat belts.)
Another common practice is people sleeping in their cars, especially businessmen and salesmen. Go to any dimly lit parking deck, and you will find a dozen or so snoring away. In America, this would be like putting a large sign on your windshield, "Please rob me." Since these sleeping guys are often in company cars and vans, they probably don't have car alarms. Why not offer a cheap alternative...a device that periodically emits the sound of a growling dog, for example? I have found that Japanese can sleep through anything (see photo above of businessman sleeping on subway, another popular way of catching some z's), so don't worry about waking them up. Help make these guys rest easier... contact us as www.noah-digital.co.jp/english.
