Persimmon (柿子)

I still remember that when I was little, I once asked my mum "why you never bought the new-year fruit?" after I saw persimmon in our neighbor's house. Back then I don't know the name of the fruit and so I called it new-year fruit because it is available when near the Chinese New Year. My mum said it is too expensive when compared to other common fruits like apple or orange. So it worth more to have two apples or oranges than only one persimmon for the same price.
Perhaps my mum has planted in me the thought that I should go for persimmon when the price is comparable to  other fruits. Of cause, we should never overlook the influence parents could have on their children. Even for some small matter which we don't think it may bother anyone, but it could still have the potential to shape the way the children perceive the world, even in their later life.

In Japan, the season of persimmon is around the end of autumn. And that is when the Jusco near the dormitory we are staying starts to sell the fruit in a large quantity with very affordable price. 99 yen each to be precise. The conversion rate to RM of cause will make it seems expensive. But when considering the salary of Japanese, it is like RM1 each.
Btw, by far I am referring to the smaller specie one shown in the photo. As for the larger one, I've never seen it at Jusco. It's a souvenir my wife received from her colleague who recently went outstation and bought it at the place of the business trip. According to her colleague, the fruit isn't available else where. So this is a very rare opportunity to taste such a big persimmon.
As you may see, it is about the size of a big apple. But what really make it so irresistible to me are the sweet taste and the crunchy bite. By 'and' I really mean it like in a math's definition - the two conditions 'sweet' and 'crunchy' must be present for the 'irresistible' to be true. We can easily find a sweet persimmon even among the the smaller specie one, but the bite never feel like the apple-liked crunch. It is only with the big persimmon that I learnt that the fruit can be crunchy as well. And to me, the crunchy feeling is way better than the Apple's one because the hardness is just nice.