Balloon Shapes By Cops » Ashiya

Beware of Wild Boars

Silentjim — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 06:37:11 +0000

Not far from where we live is a small “mountain” called Rokko Mountain (or Rokko San in Japanese). It’s a very pretty mountain home to lots of wild animals including Wild Boars.
(Our local newletter recently had a guide on what to do if you come across wild monkeys too).

Around our city, especially near the mountain area you can see signs for “Danger – Wild Boars”.
Here’s a picture of a cute wild boarlet (???) we saw while hiking in the mountain last year.

Wild Boar

The other day a leaflet came through our door for windows and doors, and in the bottom corner was an advert for “Pet Doors” (cat-flaps as we generally call them in England). But this isn’t just any old catflap (for ￥18,000 £135!), oh no, this one keeps out Wild Boars!

Boar Protector

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Post tags: Rokko Mountain, Wild Boar

Second Hand Stuffed Animals Anyone?

Silentjim — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:19:10 +0000

You know you’re in a rich part of Japan when you discover a second-hand shop (or recycle shop as they call them here), in your town and amongst the chairs, gym equipment and other junk you find this…

Scary Stuff

More Stuffed Animals

Unfortunately it wasn’t near pay-day so I couldn’t take the bear home with me…maybe next month?
Mind you I think it would take up nearly the whole of my tatami room!

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Ashiya Festival and the Pizza Selling Stormtrooper

Silentjim — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:26:58 +0000

It’s Cherry Blossom Viewing (Hanami) time in Japan at the moment (well to be honest, it’s over now, but it was a couple of weeks ago), and this means sitting under cherry blossoms, drinking sake, wine or whatever and also, the first festivals of the year (for me anyway).

Ashiya Festival 2010

(Strangely this photo is almost identical to the one I took at last years Festival – must change my snapping position for next year)

The other weekend was Ashiya Festival, which I love as:
a) It’s up the road.
b) It has wine, sake, beer and food stalls.
c) It has little old ladies selling junk for charity at ridiculously cheap prices.
d) Live Bluegrass music

Don’t ask me why, but country and bluegrass music is very popular in this city it seems. Last year they had the guy who wrote the “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack play.

This year though there was an extra special surprise…

Fancy a pizza?

A pizza selling stormtrooper!
He’s from the Japanese Garrison of the 501st Legion apparently – what do you mean you didn’t know such a thing existed?

Well I couldn’t not get my picture taken with him could I…

Stormtrooper And I

I love the face the guy behind him is pulling – got a bit of yakitori stuck or something?

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Post tags: Ashiya, Matsuri, Star Wars, Stormtrooper

Valentines Dinner in Ashiya and Bennys Burger

Silentjim — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:32:05 +0000

Last Sunday Aki and I went to igrek Bellport, a posh French restaurant near Ashiya Marina – where the rich types in Ashiya park their yachts.

It’s a little pricey but well worth it with a selection of fantastic French food.

Fish Starter

It’s a little unfair to be calling the above creation a fish starter but it was predominately fish and did appear quite near the start of our many coursed meal (we started with a few oysters just to warm the appetite up).
Then came some soup thing (wasn’t a big fan of that, the it was layered, the top part tasting like Heinz vegetable soup – delicious – but the bottom part was an unusual brown swirly texturey thing which I left).
The two mains (for there were two), were more fish and then…
(...)
Read the rest of Valentines Dinner in Ashiya and Bennys Burger (247 words)

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Post tags: Burgers, Eating Out in Japan, French Restaurant

Ashiya Festival and some Wine Tasting

Silentjim — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:57:46 +0000

We’re heading into festival season now and it kicked off for us with the yearly Ashiya festival.

Unfortunately the weather was against us this year and it poured down on the Saturday so we held off going until the Sunday, when thankfully the weather had improved a bit.

Although it does have a musical stage by the river, with bands playing throughout the day including a surprisingly large amount of Country and Western groups, Ashiya festival is essentially about wandering around the food, drink and charity stalls, eating, drinking and discovering hidden gems amongst all the junk like the Attack on the Queen DVD (Japanese title) I picked up for a bargain ￥100!

Well, actually after watching it maybe it was a little overpriced but you live and learn.

Ashiya Festival

As usual there were a couple of wine stalls, so I tried some which were pretty nice but we’d just come from a wine tasting so I was pretty wined out by then.

Also met our local celebrity baker (Mr Bigot, french guy who makes great bread – he was the one twisting my arm to drink more wine actually), and also took a picture of the city mayor.
He looked like a nice enough chap.

Ashiya City Mayor

Didn’t stay too long as it was a “school night” and I had work the next day.

——————————————————-

But now, the wine tasting. Our first ever and a lot of fun it was too. We tried about 20 wines for just ￥2000　and had some cheese too. Check out my wine blog for more info.

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Post tags: Ashiya, Festivals, Matsuri, Wine