The Kiwi

Each location in Japan has a specialty, so as to facilitate the selling of souvenirs. One town, for example, might be associated with a kind of food (Osaka and okonomiyaki), another with a historical tale (Sado Island), and another with traditional Japanese culture (Kyoto, Kanazawa). This practice extends to every location in Japan, no matter how large or small. Whatever that place is famous for is then packaged and sold to tourists in many forms, often involving Hello Kitty at some point.

I live in a town of about 50,000 people. It's in a relatively rural area.

When I taught at junior high school, the students had an assignment where they has to write about what their town was famous for. As I said, it's a small place, so all of the students pretty much wrote about the same things. I learned that their town is famous for the tsubaki (camellia), which is its official flower. Although there is a stone carving of a camellia near the town center, I have yet to see a live one. I learned that it was also famous for its massive new town hall. I doubt word of the size of their town hall has spread far beyond the borders of the town, but they were obviously proud of it. And lastly, every student wrote about how their town was famous for kiwis.

Kiwis...

This might not have bothered me so much, had it not been for the following things:

(1) Literally every student mentioned it.

(2) In all my exploration, I had never seen anything in town that did not fall under the category of ugly building or rice paddy.

I let it sit for a while, but whenever I went to a new part of town, I looked for these elusive kiwi trees. I was unsuccessful in my ventures, and finally my curiosity got the better of me. I decided to ask Umeda-sensei about the matter.

"Um, Umeda-sensei, I have a question. All of the students write about how Nonoichi is famous for kiwis. Where are they? I want to see some kiwi trees."

"Hmm... Maybe there are no kiwi trees in Nonoichi," she replied.

"Then why do the students write about their town being famous for them?" I continued.

"Well, Nonoichi's sister town is in New Zealand. That is why we are famous for kiwi fruit," she explained without batting an eye.

Let's go over that logic one more time. Nonoichi's sister town is in New Zealand. New Zealand is famous for kiwis. Therefore, Nonoichi is famous for kiwis and can sell kiwi products as if they were home grown.

If you can find my town on a Japanese map, there will usually be a little picture of a kiwi, indicating that any presents bought here should feature the kiwi fruit. You can definitely buy kiwi wine, if nothing else. But don't go looking for the kiwi trees; they're thousands of miles to the south.