Asahikawa Winter Festival

The date for the 50th annual Asahikawa Winter Festival has been announced. The 2009 festival will be held from the 7th to the 11th of February with a festival launch party to be held on the 6th.

Although we have not confirmed the full details as yet, the International Ice Sculpture Competition will start on the 7th with the sculpting teams working through the night to finish on the 8th. The sculptures will be displayed until the 11th of February. More information can be found HERE, and we will post further details as they come to us.

Until then, the flier below will have to suffice.

Restaurant Search - Deden (ででん)

Deden is a generously sized Japanese Izakaya in the San Roku　quarter in the heart of Asahikawa City. Expecting the standard Izakaya fare, we were surprised to find an unusually elaborate menu, rich with interesting adaptations of recognized Izakaya dishes.

The beauty of the restaurant is not so much the novel approach to standard fare, though this is major bonus for seasoned Izakaya campaigners, but more so the multitude of choices available from the menu.　Sashimi, tempura, grilled fish, yakitori, nabe, soups, and Chinese-influenced dishes are all available in many different varieties. Lovers of the more exotic will be excited to find stewed tripe, sashimi (raw) liver, stewed beef tendon, 50-50 deep fried octopus, venison, or tempura crab.

With the help of Asahikawa Tourism, the Deden menu is soon going to be available in English and Chinese, making Deden a great choice for excellent dining without communication difficulties.

As a last note, for the love of all things tasty,

PLEASE TRY THE ICE-BREAD !!!

More info on 50-50 octopus and ice-bread HERE

New TNT Blog from Q

For those people that like their nature information with a little more credibility than my random rants, you'll be happy to know that a very good friend of ours at Asahikawa Tourism and TNT member, 'Q', (a.k.a Booster, a.k.a Rocket, a.k.a Grizzly Man . . . actually I just made these up) has started a new blog from Asahidake. Q is a park ranger at Asahidake making him the most reliable source of tourist and weather information for Asahidake Onsen and the Taisetsu National Park. Check out his blog for new and up to the minute information on the mountains in the Taisetsuzan, ECO Tourism and all things Nature.

You can find Q's blog HERE

Something for this summer

If you're wondering how to best spend your time this summer in Asahikawa, definitely consider park golf.

The cheaper, shorter, less complicated baby brother of "real golf", park gold is one of the best ways to escape the city and get some fresh air, not that the Asahikawa air is unclean, ...you know what I mean. With so many great Park Golf courses accessible on foot, by bicycle or by car, there really is no excuse for not trying it out at least once. You'll be happy that you did. It's amazing how therapeutic taking your frustrations out on a small little ball can be when you're surrounded by nature. We'll be posting locations, prices and the like soon. Until then, happy park golfing.