Watermelon-mania...in Japan

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/