The Vegetabrella is an umbrella that looks like a head of romaine lettuce. When closed, the resemblance is uncanny, yet when opened it becomes a (mostly) normal light-green umbrella. The Vegetabrella not only serves as an umbrella but has UV protection that makes it a popular parasol as well.

It even comes with a small bag in the same green fabric, while the ribbon use to keep it closed is similar to those found on salads in Japanese supermarkets. The Vegetabrella is sold in a carton box that also looks a lot like Japanese lettuce boxes.

Designed by Yurie Mano and the design company h-concept, each Vegetabrella is hand-made by Tokyo Noble, a family-owned company that specializes on the production of high quality, hand-made umbrellas. The Tokyo Noble shop is close to Akihabara in Tokyo, where staff allow customers to choose from hundreds of umbrella parts to then assemble a unique product right in front of the client.

The Vegetabrella weighs 200 grams (7 oz) without the box and has a diameter of 80 centimeters (31 in). Retailing for ¥4,725, it has been featured on NHK World’s Cool Japan program, which gave it major exposure outside of Japan, leading to it being picked up by a number of blogs, newspapers and magazines. It's available for sale on the Nihon Ichiban online shop at the Japanese retail price plus international shipping (as applicable).

We're not sure if the Vegetabrella is the only fake food umbrella from Japan, or if we'll see more variations coming in future. But who knows? Japan is always full of surprises!