Fancy Fruit

I had heard that Tokyo was an expensive city, but one of the most outrageous things is the price of certain fruit! I had told a few friends back in NYC about this and how much I miss those streetside vendors, but this is worth sharing with the group. That musk melon is $106, and that's not even the most expensive one at the store (top end melon $126)Ok, so I happened to be in a fancy Japanese supermarket catering to the very rich Japanese, but this is over the top. The mango is a steal at $80.  These are generally given as gifts to the sick in the hospital or when you have had a baby (please give me a plate of sushi and champagne instead if I ever have a baby here).  A friend here says that she waits for the melons to get very ripe and then the store splits it in half and sells it for a fraction of the original cost. My question is, when does that day come? When do they really know if someone is about to walk in the door and shell out all that money or do they let that melon almost rot and then chop it in half? And at that price I shouldn't be able to fondle it and take pictures without charge.