If you’re in Japan, you can always try buying a pack of 5 strawberries for 50,000 yen.

At the current exchange rate, that works out to about $552.35 for five strawberries, or about $110 for one strawberry.

Each strawberry is about 65 grams, so they’re much larger than your standard strawberry, but goodness.

$110 for one strawberry?!

But wait, it’s January and that means the strawberries are larger now, than they were last month.

And guess what, strawberries weight in at 80 grams will set you back 50,000 yen a piece.

That’s $552.35 for one strawberry.

Craziness.

You can find out more at the bijinhime website.  (bijinhime is the name of the strawberry.)

Looks like Wendy’s is no more in Japan.  Via BBC:

Zensho, which operates 71 Wendy’s burger restaurants in Japan, said it planned to close all of the outlets by the end of the year.

I’m not a huge fan of Wendy’s, but I can’t help but feel a little sad.

The Associated Press is reporting that Japan will have “…40,399 people aged 100 or older this month, surpassing the previous record of 36,276 last year.”

86% of those people also happen to be women.

My grandmother actually falls into this category. If I’m not mistaken, she turned 101 this year (or was that 102?).

The oldest Japanese citizen is currently a 114-year-old woman living in Okinawa.  The oldest man is 112 and lives in Kyoto.

Current life expectancy sits at 86 years for women and 79 for men.  But I wonder, how long will this last?

Western food has become quite popular in Japan and I get the feeling that isn’t going to help extend life expectancies.  Many of the people living into their 90s and 100s are people that lived on diets that consisted of a lot of fish and rice — something that has been changing quite a bit over the last decade or two, with the influx of Western food.

While I have nothing against Western food, I do also tend to believe that people should stick to foods that originated in their localities.

It’ll be interesting to see how life expectancies change over the next 20-40 years.  I have a feeling it’s going to start dropping.

Lotteria has added a new burger to their menu: the Zetsumyo Burger.

Lotteria: Zetsumyo Burger

They are so confident that you’ll like their new burger that they have instituted a refund policy on the burger through July 31st.

For those wondering, here’s the fine print on how to qualify for a refund if you aren’t satisfied.

• No refunds if more than half of the burger has been eaten
• You’ll need to return to the same store you purchased the burger from on the same day you purchased the burger. You’ll also need the left-over burger and the receipt.
• You’ll have to answer a questionnaire on why you felt the burger wasn’t good.
• Refunds will only be of the burger itself. So if you bought the burger as part of a set, only the cost of the burger will be refunded.
• If you used a coupon, only the cost of the burger itself will be refunded.
• If you purchased the burger with an invitation card, you do not qualify for a refund.
• Only 1 refund per customer.
• There are only a limited number of burgers and there is a deadline for when this campaign ends.