InsideJapan News Network

On Monday, (June 13th) a man walked away from a fruit auction in Sapporo with a watermelon - and all it has cost him is 300,000 yen (£2,280).

The winning bid was for an example of the Densuke watermelon, grown in relatively small numbers in the town of Toma, on Japan's second-largest island of Hokkaido, according to Kyodo News.

In the shops, the fruit - which are known as 'black-rind watermelons' for their distinctive skin - sell for around 5,000 yen (£38) each.

Even more amazing is that a separate auction was held on the same day in the city of Asahikawa, where one was sold for 250,000 yen (£1,900).

Densuke Watermelon, which is one of more than 1,200 varieties of the fruit, can weigh up to 11 kilograms. The most expensive example of the black-rind watermelon ever being sold was in June of 2008, when one fetched 650,000 yen (£4,940).