On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 20:47:10 +0900, Declan Murphy
<declan_murphy@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Dave Fossett wrote:
>> Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson wrote:
>> 
>>>What's the name for them again? Also does anyone know of a web site
>>>describing in English what they're supposed to symbolise? Google
>>>doesn't turn up anything useful.
>> 
>> Eh? Carrots? I've been to Japan twice now, but I don't recall seeing
>> anything like this.
>> Any chance of a link to a pic on the web?
>
>Perhaps Ken's thinking of 赤カブ？？？
>http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/cookingabc/closeup/CU20031117a/

I asked the wife, and it was Kintoki Carrots I was thinking of:

http://www.pref.kagawa.jp/eizo/vol003/en/toku3/konsai/01.htm

They seem to be a Kansai thing, used instead of Sweet Potato in Kanto,
so says the BYJW. I still haven't found what they symbolise, however.

Ken