Anyone for a sausage?

I was sent this interesting picture yesterday and I thought that it fitted quite well into the whole 'aliental' concept.

(thanks to Troy for the picture!)

Apparently this is an illustration from a book entitled "Ume No Chiri" (Dust of Apricot) published in 1844. It describes how the crew of a foreign ship witnessed this strange object (now believed to be an alien spacecraft) at Haratonohama in Hitachi no Kuni, Japan in 1803. According to the explanation in the drawing, the outer shell was made of iron and glass, and the strange letters shown on the right hand side of the picture were seen inside the ship.

Either that or it's a very ornate barbecue...

:D