Spotted yesterday. Delectably sweet, fragrant strawberries wrapped in plastic, contained in a plastic, pre-giftable box, at ¥500 yen a pop ( for ONE : approximately five dollars ). A small punnet was ¥2700; a papaya for the day, ¥1500.
I have written about exorbitant fruit prices before in my Neela Vermeire Bombay Bling review ( behold, the ¥5000 mangoes !): a Yubari melon can reach up to a million.
Meticulouslly cultivated; blemish-free, the fruit fetishized equivalent of Kobe Beef.
The Black Narcissus 
I completely disapprove of the excessive packaging, but does this fruit actually taste good? The pale ones look unripe.
We are lucky to get delicious, fresh, local produce in Montréal (in season) but it is of course not perfect and blemish-free. It is also not $5 a strawberry. My great find this past summer was black raspberries. Very rare and in extremely short supply, but my local street farmer’s market had one guy who had a kilo or two of them. Sublime.
D adores raspberries but they are only imported here, a bit unjuicy, and cost an absolute fortune.
Regular strawberries are delicious here : huge, tart and full tasting, but still expensive. Bananas are the only cheap fruit.
And yes :
Plastic production / consumption here is OFF THE SCALE.
People ( except this luxe fruit vendor ) are only just starting to wake up to it
I get really exasperated when shopping : everything is wrapped and wrapped : individual bananas are shrink wrapped
Goodness me!!!
They look so forlorn, in plastic boxes as well.
Apples, pears and cherries, oranges all of those??
And the tropical ones as well?
I remember that in Sweden you could buy a piece of cucumber or one tomatoe.
You must have fruity dreams to compensate!!
Dear me! Your photo is gorgeous; the fruits somewhat Frankenstein. Makes me want to flee to the nearest farmer’s market, lol!
Seriously, give me the plenitude of a farmer’s market (they exist too; we have a good one in Kamakura actually). Still, if you just have ONE strawberry presented to you like this, you KNOW you are going to savour it.
No bellyaches and childhood pukes from too much summertime fruit picking.
I miss fruit parlours in Japan! Does any other country have such a thing? I think not. I used to like the seasonal fruit parfaits. Parfaits….does any other country have seasonal fruit parfaits? I think not….I think I once even bought a “mook” that rounded up and reviewed the best fruit parlours in Tokyo. Mooks….does any other country have mooks? I think we know the answer.
!!!
I know. Fruit here is put on a plinth (and cradled in a polystyrene nest). Glorified. By the dainty who take tea.
Taiwan has mooks, and many other things of Japanese influence. Magazine + bOOK = MOOK… best of both worlds!
I must admit I did not know what this meant
That must make quite the gift, a single perfect 🍓. The excess packaging is a bit disconcerting to my planet conscience self.
ME TOO!!!