The fruit and vegetable post!!

Fruit and Vegetables!

A topic near and dear to me.  Near because the fridge is just a few feet away.  Dear because of the amazing Japanese peaches.  It might be all in my head, but they're WAY better than all that crappy fruit back home.  There's really an entire industry based on giving fruit as gifts here, and it's not uncommon to see pristine apples, peaches, watermelons, and grapes wrapped up in plastic just ready to be given away to those who've generated "owing."  As a new ALT living in Japan, I am currently owing several people somewhere between 200 to 300 gift points each, based on all that they've done for me.  I'm not sure what a gift point corresponds to, because I just made it up now.

Watch this video of me talking about fruit!

PS, I keep mentioning cost in this video because 1) I'm still conserving money for the time being, so fruit is really a splurge, and 2) I'm cheap anyway.

I find it pretty interesting that the shift from fruits themselves to fruit-flavored things is really a driving force in Japanese candy and drinks.  You frequently come across interesting drinks like melon milk, all kinds of fruit-flavored teas and drinks, and things that taste nearly identical to fruits.  However, the fruits themselves are the hot commodity -- fruit-derived drinks and foods are a better choice and are 99% as good.  That being said, the kinds of fruit drinks you can get in a convenience store--melon, mango, peach, apple, pear, the list really goes on for quite a while--more than compensate for the steep price of fresh produce.  And really, on average it's not that much more expensive than it is in America, and if you couldn't tell from my above enthusiasm, totally worth it.

And, on a side note, here's how to grow some square watermelons. And no, I haven't seen these yet, but regular-shaped watermelons are huge (figuratively and literally) this time of year.

How to grow a square watermelon:

1. Insert your on-the-vine-growing watermelon into a square made of tempered glass.
2. Wait.
3. Enjoy!

On another side note, I took a peach out of the fridge just now to photograph it, but it just looked so ripe and delicious, that when I look down my hand was empty, but I was chewing something very peach-like... weird.

That's all for now!