Fashion food

To make it happen, farmers grew the melons in glass boxes and the fruit then naturally assumed the same shape. Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan.

But the fruit, on sale in a selection of department stores and upmarket supermarkets, appeals mainly to the wealthy and fashion-conscious of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two major cities.

Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon.

Looks easy to cut.

Overpriced blasphemy.

The fashionably conscious? Who is so full of themselves they are worried about the shape of their fruit?

What a pain in the *** that would be to put each little baby watermelon in a glass box and make sure they stayed there while they matured. I would probably charge $83 if I had to go through all that silliness.