Gold products worth over ¥4 billion ($36.82 million), including a takoyaki (octopus dumpling) maker, were put on display Thursday at a Takashimaya department store in Osaka.
The exhibit will showcase about 1,000 gold products through Monday, including the ¥43.2 million pure gold takoyaki grill that cooks up ball-shaped flour dumplings filled with minced octopus and other ingredients that is one of the emblems of Osaka's food culture. Some of the products can be purchased.
The grill is 21 cm in diameter and weighs about 3 kg. It comes with golden toothpicks to flip and eat the dumplings with.
Kensuke Kakiuchi, a 44-year-old takoyaki shop owner who offered to demonstrate the grill, said it produced great dumplings with thinner outer layers than he can make with his own cooker.
Also on display is a 2-meter-tall phoenix figurine gilded with some 5,000 sheets of gold leaf, which is not for sale.
Among the other items is a pure gold rugby ball priced at ¥38.88 million, an oval gold coin bearing the image of legendary 17th century samurai Yukimura Sanada, priced at ¥205,200, and golden implements for a Buddhist altar.
