In my Happy New Year post I talked about the boar appearing on this year's nengajo. I also noted that the boar shared space with what looked like a watermelon. I discussed this with friends - what significance does the watermelon have at New Year? One of my friends just got back to me about it - apparently it isn't a watermelon, but a Japanese melon, or uri 瓜。When wild boars are still only boarlets they are striped, and hence look like melons with legs. As a result Japanese people have nicknamed them uribo 瓜坊 which roughly translates as melon-boy ( boya 坊や is a term used to address small boys). Melon. Boar. Either way, delicious. Photo courtesy of くらげねこ
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