Summer is here in Yubari.
In this report, I looked at a festival celebrating the peak of the Yubari melon season,
as well as discussed the future of Yubari with its mayor!
On June 26, 2016, the Yubari Melon Festival,
an event at which several thousand people converge on the city of Yubari, was held.
The event is held at the Yubari public wholesale market -- let’s go take a look!
The opening ceremony started with a greeting
from Mr. Suzuki, mayor of Yubari.
Looking closely at the sign for the event, we see that it reads: “Yubari Melon Festival for Reconstruction.”
As it turns out, the event was last held in 2000 where, following worsening public finances, it was suspended.
It remained suspended following the 2007 declaration of public bankruptcy.
Seeking to revitalize Yubari, the firm operating the wholesale market and a group of volunteers came together to reopen the festival in 2009.
The locals at the event seemed quite aware of the challenges of maintaining the event and its significance.
There were lots of events, plus free Yubari melon samples -- which ran out almost instantly, in spite of having 1,000 prepared!
At the end of the long, snaking lines awaited lots of Yubari melons! Everyone from children to adults was all smiles as they waited expectantly in line.
Seeing kids taking a huge bite out of the melons was so cute!
The entire venue was redolent with the sweet scent of Yubari melons, and you could hear people everywhere expressing their happiness.
The event sees not only many local visitors, but people who come in from other prefectures and even from overseas.
The service at this event is so gracious and the mood so happy, you can easily see why people would come out in droves.
You can get very high quality melons here for staggeringly low prices. They say they get many regulars who come by and scoop up boxes of six melons.
Demand is stiff, so the shoppers make quick decisions!
“Excuse me, is this high quality melon really so cheap?”
I got really curious about the eye-popping prices.
Within just one hour of the event going live, most of the product had sold out.
All the same, there was still more fun to be had after the tastings and sales.
There were also booths around the venue slicing up the melons for sale. You could get a cut slice for half the price you would normally have to pay!
Without hesitation, I got myself a slice!
Since this was, after all, a celebration, there were feasts of melon everywhere. The numerous stalls had Yubari melon and other foods made from local Hokkaido products.
Just what does it entail, I wondered? I decided to take part.
Just like you would get at a real auction, they give you a large paddle and a hat to wear.
But why would so many people gleefully want to take part in a mock auction?
The fact is, you can get Yubari melons on the cheap here.
There were many grades and quantities of Yubari melon up for auction,
with everyone really bidding on them like it was the real thing.
One thing I began to realize was that when an enthusiastic buyer bought a certain quantity of a melon,
counterbidders would eventually disappear, and they wound up getting a good deal in the end.
I got caught up in the action and wound up winning one bid, too. I think I got overexcited.
Next time I take part, I know the trick is to wait patiently until the end!
In the afternoon, the children’s melon speed eating contest was held.
There was one boy who seemed like shoo-in, from the looks of him.
As I expected, he won by a wide margin. Apparently, this boy also takes part in children’s sumo events!
At the end, he let out a victory roar -- how impressive! You have to admit, seeing a kid roar with victory is really super cute.
The shops exhibiting sold a range of dishes
made from ingredients local to Hokkaido.
The owner of local bar Pleasure is a young woman in her twenties!
One thing that always strikes me is that the people of Yubari are very open and frienly.
The sense is that they want to be personally responsible for conveying to people everywhere that Yubari is going strong.
This is true not just of those operating shops, but of all local residents.
You can tell this energy stems from a sense of building up Yubari through local efforts.
Having a place where people come together to celebrate local pride and joy in food is cause to be happy, after all.
After the Yubari melon festival ends and we go enter summer in earnest, melons continue to ship through late August.
Yubari melons are the result of many long years of efforts by locals. Just what does this fruit mean for Yubari itself?
And what do people think of the new and improved Yubari melon Pocky?
We sat down with Naomichi Suzuki, mayor of Yubari, and Takeshi Watanabe of Ezaki Glico to learn more!
--Nice to meet you. I attended the Yubari melon festival, and it was brimming with locals and people who had come in -- and there was an aroma of melon everywhere!
- Nice to meet you; I’m Naomichi Suzuki, mayor of Yubari.
The melon festival yesterday saw a turnout of 3,000 people despite the cold. Seeing people sampling the fruit and lining up to eat it really showed me anew how powerful Yubari melons are.
-- I saw you casually engaging with people at one of the stalls and asking for a quick cup of coffee. You seem to really get along well with the residents of your city!
- Absolutely! Yubari has under 10,000 people, so you really get to know everyone.
The “Yubari style” is definitely about interacting with people one-on-one and getting a feel for how they are doing.
--I had some of the melon at the festival and found it to be Sweet and with an excellent fragrance. it made me so happy. You have both worked with Yubari melons for so long. What is your take on this fruit?
- Hello, my name is Watanabe, and I’m with Ezaki Glico. Nice to meet you. I consider Yubari melons a special occasion fruit that you eat to celebrate, when something special happens, and so on -- something you share as a family.
On holidays like Children’s Day, Mother’s Day, and birthday, we serve Yubari melon alongside cake. My daughter, who is in elementary school, really loves it. To her, Yubari melon is synonymous with melon!
- I often receive Yubari melons as gifts. The unique thing about them is that when you send someone a Yubari melon, they always call you back in person to say thank you.
When I receive these calls, each time it makes me realize that Yubari melons are the perfect way to gave your gratitude to others and show that you care.
-- so it really is a special fruit to you both.
It has been twenty-two years since Yubari melons were reenvisioned in the convenient form of Pocky. This time around, the package is being updated.
I understand that the Yubari melon flavor was the first one in the JIMOTO Pocky line. Why did you choose that fruit?
- There are three core flavors in Japan that are very popular; these would be melon, strawberry, and grape. When we began thinking about what kinds of popular flavors could be used to create Pocky “souvenirs,” the immediate image that came to mind when talking about melons was Yubari melons.
You can’t talk about Hokkaido and melons without mentioning Yubari. Simply envisioning it is enough to bring the unique sweetness and aroma to my mind. Yubari melons are really memorable in that way.
-- It’s also unique that they are named after the City itself. It’s perfect for a Hokkaido souvenir.
But this is a fairly juicy fruit, so is handling it difficult?
- The product has been updated to have the juice content at 24%. This is the borderline level, the maximum we can have and still turn it into a snack food. By using as much juice as possible, it has made it even more delicious. The result is a flavor close to the Yubari melon, with a deep and sweet flavor taste stays with you.
- When I tried the Pocky, I, too, felt that it accurately captured the way Yubari melon has a comparatively lower Brix, or sweet, content, while still clearly suggesting a sweet feeling, along with a smooth, viscous texture and rich bouquet that expands in the mouth.
Furthermore, it doesn’t just have a generic scent, but really carries the aroma of the Yubari melon.
Getting the aroma right when making a snack food is a difficult process, I’m sure. But you open the package and it’s instantly recognizable.
Our staff have tried tons of melon products and are, in a sense, the most stringent when it comes to Yubari melons. When we held a tasting session with the team before it became a product, they openly said it was extremely delicious, so we were totally confident this was a perfect fit.
- It’s great to get such a reaction, since this JIMOTO Pocky is one we really wanted people here to try!
We want this to be a real souvenir that locals approve of and can recommend to their friends with enthusiasm.
-- I see!Thank you both for your time. It seems the idea is to go beyond something familiar as “melon” and to make it really recognizable as Yubari melon.
I hope readers will try both the melon and the JIMOTO Pocky and see how close the snack food gets to the real thing! You’ll be amazed!
In this section, we speak one-on-one with Mr. Suzuki about Yubari melons and the future of the city.
Over three installments, we have delved into the world of Yubari melons.
The more I spoke to people, the more I realized that this fruit is really doing some new and exciting things.
On the other hand, the astronomical prices fetched at auction seem like the kind of thing that netizens would have a field day calling crazy...
And yet, it was clear to me that residents of Yubari treat this fruit as something very special and close to their hearts.
So there has to be more to the story than just prices.
I decided to pull no punches and ask the mayor bout it! (I hope he won’t get mad!)
-- Mr. Suzuki, could you tell me What Yubari itself sees the Yubari melon as?
- The general theory on this sort of thing is that “brand-name” fruits last for a cycle of about thirty years. Yet Yubari melons have lasted for over fifty years, and continue to improve. That is a very unique example, even throughout Japan’s history.
Actually, the idea to register a place name plus the name of a fruit was the first experiment of its kind.
Today, the city of Yubari has been designated by the national government as a city targeted for financial reform to recover from debt.
Amid that context, Yubari melons are a key fruit that accounts for 90% of the agricultural sector here.
The nature of farming work is that you are generally tied to an area, making it difficult to move elsewhere. Therefore, people here have a strong sense of responsibility for their local town and work hard on the melons.
Having a local Yubari product become such a brand-name item is a huge source of pride for locals.
-- Given the stringent rules to melons that can be classed as Yubari melons, you passed the 2015 GI standards (a form of international intellectual property that designates the geographical indication or region of a product) with ease and it was became the first to apply as GI standards fruit. I think it is very interesting episode.
- It really is.
Several decades ago, there was already the idea to register the trademark and establish rules on management.
When there was less awareness of this as a “brand-name” product and farmers were focused on a simple cycle of making quality products and selling them, the fact that those that came before us focused on quality control as the lifeline of production was a truly prescient choice that safeguarded the brand for the future.
Yubari melons have drawn global attention
for the astronomical prices they fetch at auction.
What is their take on this?
-- A melon at auction recently posted a new record, selling for 3M JPY. That price alone has been featured in the news, reaching destinations overseas and having people, I assume, call it crazy. But on the day of the auction, I was deeply impressed by what the mayor said, "We're expecting for foreigners to feel Japan is energetic with this auction."
So, coming to the point -- is such a high-priced melon warranted? How are these auctions seen locally?
- Actually, the melons first posted over 1M JPY only after the economy collapsed.
Until that time, it was treated as a kind of deliberately “special” price in order to give a boost to the economy with the first crop of the season.
Yubari officially declared bankruptcy in 2006. Around that time, when we first cleared the 1M JPY mark at auction, it felt like Japan as a whole was rooting for us to get back on our feet.
3M JPY is indeed an astonishing figure, but this year was the tenth year since the economic collapse, so my take on it is that it symbolizes ten years of hard work to build up the melons to where they are, and a commitment to continue doing so.
-- Oh, really? I had no idea.
It’s truly a surprise to know that the prices are tied to a driving spirit of recovery.
- Yubari melons are now talked about on the news, and people congratulate us about it. It feels like our hometown is being praised, in other words, as local producers working hard, it acts as a source of motivation, and for local residents, it’s something to be proud of.
-- I visited Yubari several times for this report and even asked you about your salary.
Apparently, you have cut your salary by 70% for a total of 250,000 JPY a month, with no bonuses!
Naturally, civil servants and those at city hall have also faced cost-cutting.
Yet it is really impressive how people choose to stand strong and remain in Yubari to make it better.
- I myself was a civil servant in Tokyo and am not originally from here. The locals are really amazing.
If you look back at the history of Yubari, about eighty years ago, they ran coal fields to meet wartime demand. Many people lost their lives in accidents and faced the strictures of a difficult climate, yet they supported the nation.
Sixty years ago, with the period of rapid economic growth, they were drilling for coal, but with changes to energy policy, the population shrunk. The town shifted to cultivating melons. In just 100 years, they have met and overcome countless major changes and even amid the current bankruptcy, are still going strong.
In Yubari, throughout the years, you have always found a people who have the tenacity to overcome problems. I have huge expectations for this town.
-- it almost seems as If the history of the Town itself was priming it for Yubari melons.
- Exactly. Yubari melons were the result of many years of hard work. Even so, when the melons were first produced, they would quickly yellow. They weren’t fit to sell on the market. Instead, they decided to go in the other direction and figure out how to perfect them as a brand-name product. Seeking to overcome this adversity, they wound up creating a one-of-a-kind item.
-- Wow, that is a really moving story. Hearing this is enough to convince me that the city will bounce back. Thank you very much for your time today, Mr. Suzuki.
The slow way of life in Yubari is not something that was always this way, and just gradually escalated upward.
It is the result of the hard work and perseverance of locals.
The deliciously sweet and fragrant Yubari melons are no exception -- they are the product of the forward-thinking mentality of the locals, who committed to making the world’s most delicious melon!
A challenging and rich natural climate -- both of these insights went into the Yubari melon Pocky.
Next time you find this Pocky in stores, take some time to recall the stories we’ve discussed here.
You’ll find the taste is all the sweeter when you call to mind the passion of local Yubari residents.
Locals power is so amazing!
The town seems has many episodes we don't know.
I thought "the character of the town" was destined along with history and place. But, I realized this idea was wrong! After this interview, I seriously came to think i'd like to know more "local" episodes.
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