Watermelon is the king of summer fruits and you haven’t lived until you’ve tried a slice of sweet Japanese watermelon with a little bit of salt on the side. Because Japan does watermelon better than anywhere else in the world, and we mean that sincerely.
Seriously, Japanese watermelon is amazing
Watermelon crops aren’t native to Japan but got imported from Africa, the Middle East, and Eurasia as early as the 14th century. Since then, Japanese farmers have mastered the art of growing enormous and perfectly shaped watermelons with great attention to the soil and their aspect. They’re mainly produced in Kumamoto, Chiba, and Yamagata prefectures.
Japanese watermelon is a very pricey fruit considered to be a luxury worth giving as a present to people and businesses.
Luckily, you can afford your own slice of heaven for a more reasonable price at grocery stores. If your budget is tight and you need to save money, look out for discounted prices at the end of the day.
Watermelon art: level Japanese
While some of us can only dream of buying an entire watermelon (they can cost about ¥3,000 apiece!), some artists are just having fun carving them.
And we love it! Here are some of our faves.
のオカンが「ジョーズにたやろ!?」ってってたのでたって…。ネットで見たスイカアートをでやってみたそうな。
=
“I received a picture from my mother with ‘Well Jaws* no?!’ It seems she tried to imitate watermelon art she saw on the internet.”
(*This tweep’s mother made an awesome pun with (skilled) and ジョーズ, the Japanese title for the cult movie Jaws)
スイカアートしてください
=
“Please do watermelon art”
スイカがきなので、はコロナをってアマビエ(ラスボス)をってみました。
またいつものがってきますように！アマビエ様どうぞよろしくお願いし上げます！
=
“I love watermelon, so this year I did Amabie (final boss style) hoping to end the corona outbreak. I hope we’ll get back to a normal way of living. Thank you Amabie!”
かしアニメシリーズ
=
“Nostalgic anime series”
スイカ
しいね
ちなみにこれちゃんが作ったスイカアート
すんげー上手い
=
“Watermelon
is delicious
By the way, Tsuji-chan (a Japanese idol) made this watermelon art
She is so skilled!”
Trying to do something in Japanese with 〜てみる
While we have the verb “try” in English, Japanese uses the word “see” to talk about trying to do things. It’s a bit like saying, “let’s see if this works.”
The phrase is very easy to build and remember. You’ll conjugate the action verb with the connective form or “te form” (〜て) and add the verb みる. As usual with Japanese grammatical construction, you do not use the verb kanji but write みる with hiragana only.
スイカアートをやってみた = she tried to do watermelon art
としてみます = I’ll try to speak to him tomorrow
いものを食べてみたい = I want to try to eat spicy food
Vocabulary
実家 jikka (my) parents’ house スイカアート suika aato watermelon art 見様見真似 miyoumimane learn by imitating/watching other コロナ終息 korona shyuusoku end of corona アマビエ Amabie Amabie (a Japanese yokai) 彫る horu carve いつもの日常 itsumo no nichijyou normal/everyday (life)
