Bosker, "Why Should a Melon Cost as Much as a Car?" (pp.37-42)

Be sure to read this short essay for Thursday, with the normal quiz to follow. Use the questions below as a rough reading guide:

* What is "hashiri," and why is it so historically important to the Japanese?

* What customs do the Japanese have that make fruit such an important commodity? Do we have anything like this in the US (with something other than fruit)?

* One of the people Bosker interviews, Monozumi, claims that "people in Japan are simply more concerned than foreigners with quality" (39). Do you think this is true? Are Americans more interested in cost than quality? 

* How can fruit be like a fine wine? What makes fruit growing an "art"?

* The author says that eating the gourmet strawberry was like "tasting in color for the first time" (37). What do you think she meant by this? Do we often have the opportunity to taste in color here?

* The author writes at the end of the essay that "something that initially seemed nonsensical, even trivial, had altered my definition of beauty" (42). What does she mean by this, and how did a simple melon do this?