Odd-shaped melons herald Japan summer

Tokyo

JAPANESE consumers are used to paying through the nose for fruit, and now the summer's here there's another way for them to empty their wallets: cube and heart-shaped watermelons.

But this pricey produce is not intended to tempt your taste buds - it's more ornament than the perfect picnic food.

Over at the Shibuya Nishimura luxury fruit shop in downtown Tokyo, a cube-shaped watermelon, about the size of a baby's head, sells for 12,960 yen (S$142)…