Funassyi

Funassyi (ふなっしー) is a Japanese mascot character, unofficially representing the city of Funabashi, Chiba. It was created by a citizen of Funabashi with the objective of cheering up local residents and to help promote its hometown. It has subsequently appeared at events and festivals, as well as on numerous TV programs and commercials, gaining popularity around Japan. It has also issued a CD album and several singles, DVDs, starred in its own anime series and opened its own character goods store. While it remains an unofficial character, Funassyi is used frequently in official events for Chiba prefecture, the city of Funabashi and Japan itself due to its popularity and high name recognition. Funassyi is neither a boy nor a girl, but a pear. Its parents are ordinary pear trees. Funassyi is the fourth of their 274 children. Its birthday is July 4, and it is 1,876 years old as of 2014 (in a literal time frame, it was possibly born in the year AD 138). Its full name is Funadius IV, and its favorite food is peaches. The character is fond of heavy metal music, revealing that it bought Deep Purple's Machine Head as its first album, and is also fond of Aerosmith and Ozzy Osbourne.