Caffee or Caffy (キャッフィー) has been called back to duty. The mascot character used for Sports Recreation Shiga 2008 has been sworn in by Shiga Governor Kada Yukiko on March 4, 2009 as one of Shiga’s official mascots, especially for sports events.

I saw an awful lot of Caffy mascot costumes last year at Spo-rec Shiga and wondered what they would do with Caffy afterward. His (or her) last appearance was at the Hikone Yuru-Character festival in Oct. 2008. I asked what would become of Caffy, and I was told that it would be discontinued.

Well, it will be good to see Caffy back again. He (or she) is a Lake Biwa Giant Catfish (ビワコオオナマズ), one of the native species of fish in Biwako found nowhere else in the world.