TsukuBlog

I checked out the Umezono House yesterday for the first time since last summer. There are always some brand new clothes, plates, and other whatnots, but you don’t see a big, brand new Doraemon talking alarm clock there that often. I don’t think you can get it for 800yen anywhere else, so please visit the Umezono House next week if you want to take a look at this Doraemon. It was quite big.

Other “unusual” findings are a black elementary school bag (probably the same one I saw last summer), a karate uniform, bicycles and tricycles, and brand new frames for commendation certificate.

If you are going to stay in Japan for a short period of time and are planning to visit local secondhand shops, please look into the Umezono House first. It may not have a lot of stuff, but please remember that this shop is for a good cause ;-)

Asian Friendship Association’s information in Japanese
http://www.tsukuba-swc.or.jp/circle/ajia-yujyo-kai.html
The Umezono House’s new store hours http://blog.alientimes.org/2006/07/the-umezono-houses-new-store-hours/

I didn’t know this until I checked the city website this morning, but the advisory for 光化学スモッグ(Kou kagaku smog), or photochemical oxidase smog (photochemical smog, urban ozone, Los Angels type smog…, I really don’t know what is the correct or the most commonly used term for it) was issued for southern Ibaraki area at 15:20pm and was canceled at 17:20pm yesterday. People are encouraged to stay indoor while this advisory(注意報/chuuihou) or warning(alert or warning/keihou) is in effect.

Please go to the city’s Environment Division’s page(Japanese) to check for smog information:http://cms.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/040900/

Or go to Ibaraki Prefecture’s air pollution monitoring information page(Japanese) for more precise information:
http://www.taiki.pref.ibaraki.jp/index.asp

I don’t have any background in science(in fact, anything “scientific” makes my brain cells gasp for air), so please bear with me while I attempt to translate the information from the Ibaraki Prefecture’s website.

Photochemical oxidase smog prediction(予報/yohou) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.12ppm,

Photochemical oxidase smog advisory(注意報) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.12ppm, and when the concentration is expected to remain high due to the weather condition

Photochemical oxidase smog alert(警報/keihou) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.24ppm, and when the concentration is expected to remain high due to the weather condition

Photochemical oxidase smog “acute” alert(重大警報/juudai keihou) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.4ppm, and when the concentration is expected to remain high due to the weather condition

If you work or live in Tokyo, or visit Tokyo often, you might be interested in signing up for this service:
http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/ox/bunpu/smog.htm
The air pollution prediction/advisory/warning in Tokyo will be sent to your computer or cellphone. Unfortunately, this is also all in Japanese.

The sign-up page is here: http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/kinkyu/regist.html
Please note that the registration for this service will be automatically cleared at the end of every fiscal year (the end of March), so you’ll need to register your e-mail address again in April.

Another very good site is “そらまめ君/Soramam-kun” or Atmospheric Environmental Regional Observation System.

You can pick the area you want to check the air pollution or weather from their main page like this:
http://soramame.taiki.go.jp/DataMap.php?BlockID=03
and, hallelujah!, there are chemical symbols and English abbreviations on the upper left corner of their website! You can see a particular air pollution type by clicking those buttons.

If you have very sensitive skin, eyes or throat for example, you may have very irritated skin/eyes/throat. In severe cases, some people even develop breathing trouble, severe headache, numbness in limbs, emesis, and disturbance of consciousness when the photochemical smog occurs.

In fact, one of my co-workers who has very sensitive eyes left work early to visit a doctor yesterday. My eyes were also irritated so bad that I was using eye drops all afternoon. I didn’t know about the advisory for the smog, so I thought I was just tired or stared at my computer too long(!).

This smog warning is like the ozone alert, and I really think people should try to stay indoor while the advisory or warning is in effect. Did you know that the public schools do shut their windows and doors when the advisory or warning is issued no matter how hot the weather is? Please be careful when you go outside, especially if you take your small children out for a stroll. If they start to whine, it’s possible that something other than the heat might be bothering them!

There used to be a cannon, located in the plaza in front of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, which since 1871 had been used to announce the arrival of 12 noon. On September 1, 1923 the usual DON (bang!) never sounded. A little more than a minute before midday, a tremendous earthquake, whose epicenter was in Sagami Bay, hit Tokyo with terrific force. Tokyo University’s seismograph, the only one in the vicinity to have survived the first violent spasm, recorded nearly 2000 more shock waves over the next 3-day period. Over that time, much of the Shita-Machi area of Tokyo had burned down, leaving more than 200,000 dead. Though Tsukuba lay beyond the reach of what came to be called The Great Kanto Earthquake (Kanto Daishinsai) many native Tsukubans and Ibarakians have heard from their grandparents how at that time the sky glowed red to the south at night, and was darkened in the day by drifting smoke .

Tokyo burning and Mt. Tsukuba

Since 1923, September First has been a day to commemorate that tragedy and also to remind all those residing in this disaster prone land of the need to be ready for any possible scenario. Thus, this day is both shinsai kinenbi (震災記念日, Great Kanto Earthquake Memorial Day), with its annual service at Yokoame Park in Sumida Ward (where the greatest number of victims perished), and Disaster Prevention Day (bosai no hi, 防災の日), on which you might see firemen leading schoolchildren in evacuation drills (though you are more likely to see this on Sept 2nd as the 1st is the first day back to school!), and plenty of safety tips offered on TV. You might want to take a look at Tsukuba City’s advice for earthquakes. It is both informative and amusing. We are instructed to hide under a desk, secure an exit and turn off the gas and electricity among other things, all at the same time! We are also rightly warned not to listen to rumors, which is an important lesson learned from 1923 when rumors of Koreans poisoning the wells led to the slaughter of large numbers of Koreans by rioting mobs, and the subsequent suppression of Socialists (who were said to be egging on the Koreans!) 

I don’t mean in any way to make light of this subject.  Though it’s been a long time since 1923, the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, which had Kobe burning helplessly for days, and more recently the Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture (a few years back) which has left people living in shelters TO THIS DAY, show us that there is still a long way to go in terms of preparedness and prevention of death and destruction. I don’t want to seem pessimistic, but the BIG ONE WILL COME SOMEDAY. Sometimes it’s as if you can FEEL the pressure building up on the tectonic plates. It probably would be a very good idea to read up on how to prepare.

As you know, earthquakes are not the only threat. In fact, this area has had much worse luck with flooding over the years. That is one reason why, to the astonishment of many foreigners, most Japanese don’t complain about the concreting over of ALL THE RIVERBANKS. For centuries they have been living in fear of unpredictable rivers and flooding. For them, concrete means progress and security (and it seems to have worked this year!). Tsukuba City also offers some tips on dealing with typhoons, floods and fires.

Before the disciplines of geology and seismology were introduced to Japan, there was a very CURIOUS understanding of the cause of earthquakes, which  has a STRONG CONNECTION to Ibaraki Prefecture.

The trembling of the earth was believed to be caused by the slashing about of a giant subterranean CATFISH (namazu). In order to keep this very dangerous fish restrained, the God of Kashima (Kashima Myojin) pressed down on its head with a heavy stone called the KANAME ISHI (要石), which can be found to this day within the precincts of Ibaraki’s most important shrine, Kashima Jingu. This protective stone became especially popular after a terrible earthquake hit Edo in 1855. That disaster struck in the 10th month, during which it is believed that ALL THE 8,000,000 Gods of Japan leave their own shrines and go to Izumo (Shimane Prefecture). It thus became a firm conviction among most Edo-ites that the earthquake had occurred because the God of Kashima had been away and unable to keep the giant catfish under control. The people beseeched the God to be more vigilant after that and the catfish and kaname ishi became popular subjects of devotion.

God of Kashima Subduing Catfish

The stone, which now protrudes slightly out of the ground, is still considered by believers to keep Kanto safe from earthquakes.

In the land where wrapping is everything…

I was so utterly disappointed to see mountains of plastic bags in a garbage bin at a local bakery shop where people just moments before, feasted on sweet and savory baked goods. They bought it, consumed it on the store premises (presumably on the patio), tossed out the bag, and went home. Perfectly new bags, now sitting in the trash.

Just about two months ago, this same bakery had a bright idea: offer customers a free cloth bag in the hopes of getting people to bring it each time thereby a) reducing waste and b) reducing store costs. An absurd number of people went on that day…a line which seemed endless. The funny thing is? I have only seen ONE sole customer bring back that cloth bag. Shame on everyone! I thought everyone lined up to become more environmentally friendly but they just ended up going because they are pawns in the game of materialism. If you ask me, the shop should have started charging 10-yen for each plastic bag after that free cloth bag day… come to think of it, I am going propose that to the store manager next time I go.

Each plastic bag takes from 15 to 1000 years to break down. Can we afford to be so careless in our actions? Did you enjoy this erratic summer weather? Can it be blamed on La Nina…or might it be global warming?

Anyway, next time you are shopping, I hope you think to yourself: “Do I really need a bag?”

Those of us involved in trying to have Tsuchiura’s lotus root farmers take down their deadly bird-ensnaring nets have been making efforts to rescue as many birds as possible from slow starvation, until that end is achieved.

We have become, however, metaphorically and quite literally, stuck in the mud. First, there are the technical problems which need to be dealt with. These are: slogging through waist high muck which in this season is covered with a sheet of ice and makes the going very slow and dealing with the entanglements themselves which can be amazingly complex and even more time consuming as we do not want to damage property by cutting the nets.This is exacerbated by the weight of the birds themselves with makes the nets harder to deal with.

Maurice, who drives the long way from Iwama to look for and save living danglers has applied his ingenuity to making our activities more efficient. He has bought chest-high waders, has found tools useful for untangling knots, has found that covering the birds with a sack calms them down, and has developed a sling which takes the birds weight off of the entanglement.

Even for Maurice, the going is still very slow and we need more volunteers. We thought that an article in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper would give some publicity which would help our cause. Even though the reporter showed an interest in the problem and in what we were doing and was generally quite sympathetic, the subsequent article left us highly disappointed in that it didn’t mention many of the crucial points related to the issue. There was also no mention of our volunteer activities.

One reason for this might be that many Japanese are currently upset and emotional about the foreign protesters who boarded their whaling ships. If this is the case, it was very bad timing for us.

Though we have had many disappointments, we are not about to give up. We will continue to push for changing the situation. Many other publications besides Asahi Shimbun have shown an interest in this problem and we will continue to appeal to the public. If you have any good ideas, PLEASE contact us.

Something MUST be done about the senseless and cruel slaughter of birds in the nets around Lake Kasumigaura. And because Maurice, a Canadian living in Iwama has gotten involved, the beginnings of a volunteer rescue movement have started to germinate.

Maurice is an experienced environmental activist whose approach to getting things moving is to engage the farmers in friendly discussion in order to win them over to our side. Then if farmers refuse to or are not available to free birds entangled in their own fields, Maurice takes action, but strictly within the bounds of the law. He has purchased a pair of chest-high water-proof waders, and rubber gloves, and carries tools which are not used for cutting. He refuses to cut any nets in order to free birds (as the farmers themselves would do), because that could be considered an illegal act. Instead, he patiently and painstakingly untangles the ensnared wings legs and necks. He also takes precautions against bird flu by wearing a protective surgical mask. This approach is extemely time consuming, and we were only able to rescue six birds today. I felt impotent, standing on firm ground as Maurice plodded, like an astronaut on a planet with a strong gravitational pull, through the waist deep muck, slowly toiling to free the struggling survivers which he spotted with his uncanny eagle eyes.

Birds are continually being caught. Saving a handful of birds has no effect on the big picture and our ultimate aim is to have the nets come down as soon as possible. However, it was still extremely heartwarming and relieving to see birds that would have hung until starvation set in swim freely out into the lake.

We DEFINITELY need more people to get involved and we need more input and ideas.

Please contact us if you are interested in making a difference and doing THE RIGHT THING.

Thanks alot

Avi Landau
avi[at]tora.email.ne.jp
090-4221-4194

At 1:30 pm on a sultry Saturday July 12th, we gathered in front of the Sakura Gymnasium. The heat was intense and the air itself was like pea soup and seemed to pulsate with life. There were 28 of us in all, nature lovers, who had gathered from near and far to have a look at the cultural, historical and natural treasures of Konda-Dai, which is slated for a complete bulldozing so as to be turned into another DANCHI housing development.

As I have mentioned in a previous entry, this surprisingly large area of unused land located in the very heart of Tsukuba, received a temporary stay of execution when Kayoko Takahashi caught the construction company involved with the project red-handed as it attempted to secretly wipe out a hawk’s nest whose existence she had previously reported to the city office. Because of this incident, Ibaraki Prefecture has given the area a three year lease on life.

Takahashi-san has been working feverishly to make local residents aware and to get the local government to reconsider the future of this remarkably complete ecosystem. This month’s event was organized in order to give anyone interested a look at the richness of the Konda woods, which have made it possible for its resident hawk couple to successfully raise ALL THEIR YOUNG over the past three years. Not an easy feat, and one that shows the ecological strength of the Kondai-Dai woods.

Professor Satoshi Ohori, an ornithologist at Waseda University drove all the way to Konda to have a look at our local hawks, and give us some advice regarding how to go about a grass roots movement to protect the area.

We started with a walk through the village of Konda. As we shuffled along in the cruel heat, the wooded hill where Hanamuro Castle used to stand was directly behind us, while the forest under which the ruins of Konda Castle now rest lay dead ahead. These were wooden fortresses, or palisades, which were built to dominate the area in the Kamakura Period.

We stopped to examine a Batto Kannon Sacred Stone which stands at the head of a path leading to an ancient and beautiful stairway which ascends through a thick bamboo grove. At the top is the site of the old manor which was the residence of the court official who used to oversee this area in the Nara Period. I pointed out the rare sacred stones which are still carefully tended to by the local villagers.

We then headed into the woods where the hawks live. The three chicks are doing fine and fortunately did not seem to mind the large group of intruders. We tried to be as quiet as possible and quickly left filled with the excitement of a dramatic wildlife encounter.

We then returned to the Sakura gym where we had reserved a room for Professor Ohori’s talk. We stressed how it would be possible to save a portion of the woods which would allow the hawks to remain in the area if we got enough people involved, by signing petitions and calling the city and prefectural offices. He said that if enough people raised their voices, some of this forest might be saved.

With those encouraging words Ohori-Sesei rode off into the sunset leaving us with a sense of mission.

We will be having more meetings about the future of Konda-Dai in the near future. If you are interested, or would like to get involved contact Takahashi-san at kayoaro[AT]pd6.so-net.ne.jp or me, Avi Landau at avi[AT]tora.email.ne.jp. (Change the [AT] to an @ sign.)

And yes, that is Mt. Tsukuba in the background in the wood-block print of a bird of prey by Utagawa Hiroshige. It is almost the exact same scene that I see when I watch the hawks from my bedroom window.

In Tsukuba, as the days get longer, here and there, slim shafts of greenery begin pushing up out from the snowless, brown, gray and straw-colored winterscape, giving us relieved assurance that once again, spring has come. It is in this time of year that many Japanese can be seen scouring the roadside, field edges or riverbank, as if looking for a lost object.

In fact, they are in search of yomogi (蓬), a wild herb which is gathered to make this season’s sweet - kusamochi (草餅), a distinctly green hued (perfect for St Paddy’s Day!) mochi-rice cake, sometimes filled with anko-sweet bean paste, or covered with kinako-soy bean powder.

Since yomogi (mugwort in English, though that word does NOT sound very appetizing), becomes inedibly tough quite soon after sprouting up, it has to be gathered when still very small, young and fresh. (I remember doing this years ago, for the first time, in the field behind the Tsukuba Central Police Station!) The herb is then boiled to make it less bitter, and then mixed into mochi (pounded rice cakes) and molded into small roundish patties. This gives the mochi a slightly bitter and grassy taste.

It is because of this flavor that the custom began in the first place in ancient China, where bitter grasses were believed to be effective in expelling impurities and evil spirits. This notion was imported to Japan in the Heian Period (794-1192) though a different type of herb was the most common ingredient (母子草 hahakogusa or gogyou). It was only in the Edo Period (1601-1868) that yomogi became the commonly used ingredient.

These days kusamochi is also available at most convenient stores in this season and can of course be found at wagashiya (Japanese sweet shops). I had one today. Why don’t you enjoy the season and the tradition and try it for yourself!

Large garbage items, known as “soudai gomi” (壮大ごみ), have to be disposed of separately from regular garbage items.

Anything that cannot fit in a regular 40L garbage bag is considered “large”. If you have a large item that can be broken down into small enough parts to fit into a 40L bag, you can put the parts in the bag and dispose of them on the appropriate day. If you can’t break the item down, you have to make arrangements for its disposal.

The instructions are included in the “Oversized garbage” section of the Garbage Sorting Guide on the English version of the city hall website. There is a link to the places where you can by your “large garbage tickets”, but the list is in Japanese. If you can’t read Japanese and you want some ideas of places to try, here is a list of some possibilities.

• Coco
• Family Mart
• Homac
• Japan Agriculture (JA) Branches
• Kasumi
• Lawson’s
• Ministop
• Sankus
• Seven Eleven

Not every branch of these stores may carry the tickets, so if you want a surefire way to get the tickets, go to Kasumi (in Takezono, LaLa Garden or Sakura Technopark, for example) or the 7-11 by Doho Park. What you need is called “sodai gomi shori ken” (粗大ごみ処理券).

Before you dispose of large items, be sure to try to find new homes for them, either by trying to sell them or give them away through the TAIRA, Tell and Sell Japan, or Freecycle Japan mailing lists, or by giving them to a recycle shop.

On March 3 and April 7, local volunteers and city employees got together to clean up Tsukuba. They concentrated on the areas around the main roads in Tsukuba and picked up cans, cigarette butts, and paper waste. On March 3, there were 458 volunteers and 679 city employees, for a total of 1137 people and they picked up 3.5 tonnes of garbage! On April 7, there were 147 volunteers and 717 city employees for a total of 864 people and they picked up 3.9 tonnes of garbage.

Clean Up Tsukuba events are held on a monthly basis, usually on the first Saturday of the month. If you want to participate, please call the Environment Department of City Hall at 029-836-1111 ext. 8280.

On December 3, the residents of Tsukuba gathered to collect litter from around the city. Do you have any idea how many cans and bottles they collected on that one day? I’ll put the answer (in TONS!) in the comments.

It’s a little bit shocking. Why do people think it is okay to dispose of garbage in places other than garbage cans? It’s a lesson I learned when I was little. We had a commercial that would run on television (especially on Saturday morning when the cartoons were on) telling us not to litter. It was done with a big owl — I thought his name was Hootie but a quick internet search tells me its “Woodsy”. Equally unimaginative. Anyway, Woodsy would romp through the forest and other places and the kids with him would sing:

Help Woodsy
Spread the word
Never be a dirty bird

In the city or in the woods
Help keep America looking good!
Hoot! Hoot!

And Woodsy would say:

Give a hoot!
Don’t pollute!

(I am from Canada, but we got a lot of American TV stations where I lived.)

Would I have been a polluter if Woodsy hadn’t taught me proper civic manners? Do we need to introduce Woodsy over here? Is the problem just as bad in Canada and I just don’t notice it as much?

I’m not sure, but I sure do wish people would start giving a hoot around here.

How much does it cost to handle all of the garbage we produce in Tsukuba?

In the 2006 fiscal year, the City of Tsukuba spent 3,463,000,000 yen (around US$29 million) on waste treatment.

• 52,500,000 yen (around US$450,000) was spent on collecting household waste and the waste from the pipelines in the central part of the city (both of which are commissioned to an external company)
• 1,059,000,000 yen (around US$9 million) was spent on maintaining and running the Clean Center (waste disposal and incineration plant)
• 113,000,000 yen (around US$970,000) was spent on human resources
• 1,766,000,000 yen (around US$15 million) went to pay back the loan for constructing the facilities (the loan should be paid off in full by 2011)

83,211 tons of garbage was collected last year, so the City is spending 41,600 yen (around US$360) to process each ton of garbage, or around 42 yen (36 cents) per kilogram. For reference, the amount of garbage produced by one family in a year is around 264 kg, or around 723 g per day.

Does the Clean Center make money?

Processing household garbage results in thermal recycling and resource recycling. Thermal recycling refers to the electricity that is produced from the heat from incinerating garbage. Resource recycling refers to collecting and sorting waste items so that they can be recycled. The Clean Center sells the electricity and recyclable resources and returns the revenues to the City. In 2006, revenues from selling electricity to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were 116,000,000 yen and resource recycling brought in 82,000,000 yen. A further 559,000,000 yen was brought in through fee-based services such as the collection of large garbage items (sodai gomi) and commercial waste. In total, the Clean Center brings in around 757,000,000 yen which is then used to cover part of the costs of processing the garbage.

How much money does each person cost the city in garbage management?

If we take the total cost of processing Tsukuba’s garbage and subtract the amount that is covered through fees paid by commercial establishments and the revenues brought in by the Clean Center, we are left with a total of 276,000,000 yen that must be covered by the City of Tsukuba. If the population of Tsukuba is given at 203,280 people (as of October 1, 2006), we can see that Tsukuba spends 13,300 yen per person per year, or 53,200 yen per four-person household per year to process garbage.

Source: Tsukuba City Newsletter, September 1, 2007

I’m sure that money could be better spent on education, or improving the roads, or making the city more foreigner-friendly. This is a good incentive for Tsukuba residents to re-assess the amount of garbage that they produce and try to limit non-recyclable waste as much as possible.

It’s HOT! So hot that I feel like the melt down of my brain is only a matter of time. So what do you do when it’s ridiculously hot?

Since Vivian wrote about how to cool down “internally,” I’ll write about cooling down “externally.” Turning on the fan or the air condition is what most people do to get cool breeze, but what Japanese people have been doing since early times is 打ち水(uchimizu), or sprinkling water.

Learn about Uchimizu on this website: Mission Uchimizu
(available in Japanese, English, French and in Chinese)

From Mission Uchimizu website:
The old custom of sprinkling water with a ladle on streets and gardens, called “uchimizu”,is a more well-known example of the use of water in Japan’s daily living.People sprinkle water, especially in the summer time, in their house entrances and gardens or in front of their shops to lay the dust or to ease the heat.

I practice uchimizu almost every day, and it does cool down the surface temperature. It will cool down my apartment room a little bit because the reflected heat of the sun (照り返し/terikaeshi) goes down after uchimizu.　The website I mentioned above, however, warns people not to use tap water to do uchimizu because that is not “eco-friendly.” They suggest using rain water and bath water.*
(*In case you didn’t know, Japanese people wash their bodies before they go in the bath & they don’t wash their bodies or hair in the bathtub, so the bath water stays clean.)

If you have small children, and if you let them play in their own little kid’s pool, don’t just dump the water. Save some water in buckets for uchimizu! Or if your house is right next to a stream, you can use the water from stream for uchimizu or for cleaning. That’s what my parents do, by the way. I think it’s also a good idea to uchimizu if you let you kids play in the empty parking lots or something, and feel that the ground surface heat is intense for small children.

As Vivian said, stay cool everyone!

Related post:Combat Natsubate

They sure do use a lot of plastic bags here in Japan, eh?

When I first came here, I didn’t know how to say “I don’t need a bag”, so I ended up with a bag collection that threatened to take over my whole apartment. In case some of you are in the same position, here are some expressions that might help.

袋は要らないです。
fukuro wa iranai desu
I don’t need a bag.

そのままでいいです。
sono mama de ii desu
It’s fine like that (implying that I don’t need a bag).

I usually use the “it’s fine” one, but some shop clerks don’t get the hint (the bakery staff are THE WORST) and still try to stick me with the plastic, so I am then forced to use the more direct “I don’t need a bag” one. When I first started using these expressions (a few years ago), the clerk would almost invariably start to fight with me about it. Recently, awareness of the garbage problem has become more prevalent, so I can usually get away without having to pick up my things and run out of the store while being chased by well-meaning (although not environmentally-friendly) clerks. I have, however, had some problems with people not accepting the very nice bag that I bring with me when I shop and insisting on putting a little piece of tape on everything that I buy. I don’t mind that sort of thing if I am only buying one or two things, but I nearly had a fit the other day when I did a “big shop” at Gran Stage (buying about 25 items) and one of the clerks actually stood there and put little pieces of tape on EVERY SINGLE ITEM before I picked the item up and put it inside my bag and zipped up the bag. Unnecessary.

Anyway, the reason for today’s post is not to talk about tape and being chased out of stores. No, today I want to tell you about the Ecoshop System and how we should all make a concerted effort to back this system.

Tsukuba City has started accrediting certain shops in the city as Ecoshops. Ecoshops are stores that are making efforts to decrease their environmental loads by engaging in activities such as…

1. Making an effort to sell products that are environmentally friendly (e.g. product that carry the “ecomark”, products made from recycled materials, products sold in returnable containers).

2. Dedicating a spot in the store to ecological products.

3. Simplifying or eradicating their wrapping practices.

4. Promoting the use of shopping baskets and the customers’ use of their own bags.

5. Repairing their own products.

6. Using recycled paper for their publicity.

7. Recycling empty cans.

8. Recycling empty bottles.

9. Recycling empty milk cartons.

10. Recycling produce trays.

11. Recycling plastic (PET) bottles.

12. Making other efforts to reduce the amount of garbage they produce.

As of January 2007, the following stores have been accredited as Ecoshops.

Ishimaru (Tsukuba)
Kasumi (Asse, Technopark Sakura, Gakuen, Tsukuba, Oho, Umezono, Grand Plechef, Midorino Eki Mae)
Gakuseifuku no Uchiya (Inarimae, Takezono)
Masuda (Kukizaki)
山三硝子 (I’m not sure how to read this… can anyone help?)
Uematsu Information Service
Numaya

For this scheme to succeed, the public has to start modifying its behaviour by choosing to do business with stores like this, so I hope the foreign community can put its buying power behind this idea.

The hill upon which Konda Castle (it was actually a wooden fort first built in the Kamakura Period 1185-1333) once stood and the moats which still surround it have been reclaimed by nature. While exploring its woods and bamboo forest, it is easy to forget that you are a few hundred meters from Sakura Junior High School (and my house as well). It is dark, silent and mysterious, and every time I venture there, I find something new.

Last weekend I approached the castle hill from the turf-lawn field on its east side and veered towards the large bamboo grove on the left. I found an opening, leading to a trail kept clear by small mammals and mushroom hunters. Soon, however, any sense of a path was lost as old, dried out bamboo created obstacles. These could be easily negotiated by stepping over, going around, or snapping by foot. When I stood still, not a sound could be heard, except for the light clattering of the bamboo in the breeze. As I walked on further toward the edge of the grove I noticed some golf balls. This was not surprising as the turf-grass field is often used by my neighbors for driving practice　(it is common to find golf balls in bamboo groves around Ibaraki for this reason). The balls grew more and more numerous as I went on.

Then I noticed something. It looked like a golf ball, but slightly bigger. I thought — AN EGG! I crouched down to get a closer look. It sure did look like an egg, though almost perfectly round. I touched it. It felt like a hard boiled egg which had been peeled. I lifted it. This was no egg, it was a mushroom, connected to the soil with a thin white chord. How amazing! A round white mushroom, among all the golf balls. I searched for more, and found a few, but only among the golf balls.

My mind was racing! Had I found a species of mushroom which had evolved to take on the shape of the golf balls as camouflage? Fantasies of an article in Nature Magazine were spinning in my head. Then I saw a startling sight which brought me back to reality and gave me my first glimpse of something I had only seen before in books — a Phallus Impudicus (a well-known stinkhorn mushroom) which was standing erect having burst out of one of the eggs.

These mushrooms are called suppon take (which literally means snapping turtle mushrooms) in Japanese, because they resemble the neck and head of that creature. They are found not only in the Konda Woods, but also pop up in other locales in Japan, North-East Asia, Europe and North America. When the phallic mushrooms burst out of the egg (sometimes ten inches in a day!) the head becomes covered with a stinky slime which attracts flies and other insects. These critters then help to spread the mushroom’s spores. Before this happens, the egg itself has no foul smell and is actually eaten, not only in China where it is believed to be good for rheumatism (and as an aphrodisiac of course), but also in France and Germany.

These amazing fungi, extended to full length, can be seen through November in Konda-jo’s bamboo forest.

For more on PHALLUS IMPUDICUS and other stinkhorns see:

www.arkive.org/stinkhorn/phallus-impudicus/

www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6601.asp

www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6601.asp

You never know what surprising encounters await you when you stroll around Tsukuba City. Last weekend, on a perfect October day, I stepped out of the Ars Library to stretch my legs and get a little fresh air when I spotted something unusual on the lawn of Tsukuba’s Central park (Chuo Koen). There was a small group of people fiddling excitedly with what looked like satellite dishes, or even more like large flowers with petals made of shiny steel. Never being very good at resisting the pull of curiosity, I walked right over for a closer look. As I approached I noticed various types of food being prepared and then placed into the strange metallic contraptions which glistened brightly in the sun. A small placard revealed what it was exactly that I had stumbled upon: Tsukuba’s Solar Cooking Club!

Arranged in a dense cluster on the southern edge of the park were about a dozen solar cookers of various design, some ordered from companies and others homemade. These sun-powered ovens were being used to cook up a feast. First the popcorn started popping, as that only needs five minutes of solar cooking. We would have to wait 15 more minutes for the stewed apples, 35 more minutes for the rice and about an hour for the steamed chicken and potatoes. But on a day like that, with plenty of good company, who would mind the wait.

Yuko Tomioka, of Niconet Tsukuba, gave me a little tour of the cookers, which can be ordered over the internet for about 30,000 yen. I also saw pictures of the Japan Solar Cooking Association’s visit to Tanzania, where they showed local villagers how to build their own cookers.  I was also lucky to meet and have the chance to talk with famous Tsukuba solar energy researcher Tadashi Nemoto (read < a href="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080831x2.html">a recent Japan Times article).

It was all good people, great fun, and a worthy cause: reducing dependence on gas and electricity. It seems that these gatherings can be called for whenever weather conditions are favorable, so if you are interested in taking part in any future solar cookouts you should contact Niconet (niconet[at]niconet.org).

Commemorative Lectures by Winners of the Blue Planet Award 2007

The National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) is pleased to host the commemorative lectures by winners of the 2007 Blue Planet Award on October 19, 2007. This award recognizes scientific contributions to environmental issues. Winners are invited to NIES every year to address the researchers at NIES and other members of the Tsukuba community.

Date: Friday, October 19, 2007
Time: 1pm to 2:30pm
Place: Conference Room (Climate Change Research Hall, 1st Floor) at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba)
Language: Both lectures will be given in English. There will be no simultaneous interpretation.
Cost: This event is free but requires pre-registration. Please send an email to b-planet[at]nies.go.jp by October 12 if you would like to attend.

The National Institute of Environmental Studies is located on Nishi Odori, just north of the intersection of Nishi Odori and Route 354. (The intersection is named “Inarimae”.) From Tsukuba Center, drive south on Nishi Odori, past Minami Odori and Doho Park (which will be on your left). Continue south past the west campus of the National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST West) on your right and the Meteorological Research Institute on your left. At the following intersection, turn right (you will see a Coco’s restaurant on your left). If you reach Route 354, you have gone too far. (See: map)

View Larger Map

The Climate Change Research Hall is located inside the NIES Campus. Immediately after you enter the main gate, turn right. Follow the road north. The first building you encounter will be the Climate Change Research Hall. The lectures will be held on the first floor of that building.

2007 Winners:
Professor Joseph L. Sax (U.S.A.) and Dr. Amory B. Lovins (U.S.A.)
See: http://www.af-info.or.jp/eng/honor/hot/enr2007.html

Blue Planet Prize

This year marks the 16th awarding of the Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award sponsored by the Asahi Glass Foundation, chaired by Hiromichi Seya. Two Blue Planet Prizes are awarded to individuals or organizations each year that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application, and in so doing help to solve global environmental problems. The Board of Directors and Councillors select the recipients each year. Both recipients are awarded a certificate of merit, a commemorative trophy and a supplementary award of 50 million yen.

2007 Winners

Professor Joseph L. Sax (U.S.A.)
Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
　　
Professor Sax has been and still is the leading environmental law scholar in the United States and the world, and is a pioneer of various environmental laws in the U.S. such as the law on water rights, the development of citizens-right litigation strategies, and environmental impact assessment laws. In particular, he is famous for the Michigan Environment Protection Act, popularly known as the “Sax Act,” the world’s first modern environmental law drafted on the basis of public trust doctrine. And not only in the United States, but also internationally, he has supported many governments and multi-national organizations such as the United Nations, has been influential in the development of theory on environmental protection for international law and has articulated many ideas on issues in international environmental law. Recently, he has been serving important roles in and making active contributions to not only the protection of the environment but also of cultural properties, arguing the need for the implementation of public trust doctrine in the protection of cultural treasures and historical and archaeological resources.

Dr. Amory B. Lovins (U.S.A.)
Chairman and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute

For the last 40 years and through his work in more than 50 countries, Dr. Lovins has contributed to the efficient use of energy and the transition to renewable energy sources in order to protect the global environment. Since the 1970s, when he first advocated the concept of the “soft energy path” that forms the basis of these objectives, he has consistently advocated and implemented pioneering ideas in energy and other fields. Among his achievements is the invention of the ultralight, ultra-energy-efficient Hypercar devised for significant reduction of the burden on the natural environment and the design of buildings with little or no net use of energy. In co-authored works Factor Four: Doubling Wealth―Halving Resource Use (1997) and Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (1999) showed how to double wealth and halve resource use by quadrupling resource productivity (production of goods and services per unit of resource input), and the importance of natural resources and the ecosystem. The broad reach of his activities shows the way towards resolving today’s intricately intertwined issues of energy, environment, resources, development, and security.

Vivian’s post “local produce” reminded me to write about another farmer’s market in Tsukuba. This one is held on Saturday mornings in Namiki Kinrin Park (並木近隣公園/Namiki Kinrin Koen), which is across the street from Namiki Kouminkan (community hall) by the Namiki Shopping Center. It’s officially from 10am to Noon, but the farmers get there before 9am.

This farmer’s market has a long history, and the farmers told me that they’ve started selling their veggies at this park when Tsukuba was still a quiet country town!

Like the farmer’s market Vivian mentioned, you can buy various vegetables for very low prices, so it gets extremely crowded especially when vegetable price hikes occur in “regular market.” A couple of years ago, price of lettuce went up to 300-500yen each, but you could still get it for 100yen at this farmer’s market. Naturally, a lot of people found out about it through word of mouth, and simple task like buying veggies became such a hassle!

What I like about this farmer’s market is that the vegetables sold there are organic. The farmers explained to me that they occasionally have to use minimum amount of agrochemicals, however. You’ll notice wormholes and some other damages to the vegetables you buy from these farmers, but you’ll know why their veggies don’t look as good as the ones you see in the grocery stores.

The sign in the picture is asking the customers to bring the　生ごみ(nama-gomi or raw garbage), so the farmers can use them as fertilizers. I always keep banana peels and other “veggie-gomi” in a different bag when I know I’ll be visiting this farmer’s market. I’m a “eco-minded” person, and since I grew up watching farmers in my neighborhood use raw garbage as fertilizers, it just makes me happy to bring veggie garbage to this place.

The farmers will be there every week, even during major holidays like Golden Week holidays and Obon holidays, and even during severe weather (I’m not kidding about this!).

A fish shop’s truck also comes every Saturday mornings, and you can have the fish cut in the way you like. I hear that you can buy the kind of fish you don’t see often in the grocery stores.

An alternative title for this article could be ‘The Taka and Takahashi-san’ (Ms. Takahashi and the Hawk). That is because these are the chief protagonists in what has turned out to be a long and sometimes dirty (on the part of developers) struggle to preserve central Tsukuba’s last remaining tracts of wild land, the home to numerous plants and creatures, including the majestic and protected O-Taka (オオタカ) –the hawk.

Just north of the Sakura City Office, on both sides of the narrow road which runs by it from the Hanamuro intersection, there amazingly remain large areas of almost completely unused land, with brush so thick that in summer it is all but inaccessible, save for the few barely recognizable trails created by the small mammals which find shelter there. These are weasels, tanuki, rabbit and maybe even fox. The area resounds with the calls of pheasants (kiji), bush warbler (uguisu) and at night OWLS.

In the middle of this veritable jungle is Kayoko Takahashi’s tastefully designed house/aromatherapy studio. In her dining room there is always a field scope set up on a tripod. These days at almost any time during the day, if you put your eye to the eye-piece you will be in for a thrill. It is fixed on a favorite spot of the female O-Taka who you will almost surely see waiting for the return of her mate with food for their young. The actual nest sits a few trees away. This week the cry of the chicks is clearly audible.

My house is on the fringe of this same wilderness, and I can just make out Takahashi-san’s roof amidst the trees, from my bedroom window. Just the other day I received a surprise visit from the male hawk. A shadow passed, and I guessed it was just another crow on my veranda. I turned for a look and my eyes almost popped out of my head when, through the curtain, I recognized the large raptor, munching on a freshly caught prey, just a few feet from my bed.

With the TX development project, this area was chosen as the location for the railroad’s employee housing. It was ALL slated for clearing and development. Takahashi-san changed the course of events, however, by alertly informing officials about the annual presence of the breeding hawks and called for a re-evaluation of the project. Within a couple of days a bulldozer from the project’s contractor UR 都市再生機構 (UR Toshi Saisei Kiko) arrived and started to push down all the trees which Takahashi-san had indicated!!!! Lucky for two things, though. First they missed the actual breeding nest and had knocked out only an old nest they had spotted, and second Takahashi-san witnessed and filmed the whole incident!!! An order from the prefectural government was obtained to temporarily halt construction.

What happens next is still up in the air, but as you might know, government sponsored projects are  NEVER scrapped after being approved.For example, It was not  possible to stop the filling in and destruction of Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture even  when eventually it was recognized by all parties that the huge project was ABSOLUTELY useless. But you never know, maybe things will work out differently in Tsukuba.

On Saturday July 12th at 1:30pm, we will tour the area paying special attention to flora,fauna and historical monuments. We will then of course  discuss the situation. Anyone interested in these procedings
can contact me at avi@tora.email.ne.jp

Please come and join in the fight to keep Tsukuba GREEN and BEAUTIFUL.

Doctor Kito Akio of the Tsukuba Meteorological Research Institute in Japan predicted that based on climate models and possible scenarios, East Asia’s increase in temperature on the earth’s surface will be 20 percent higher than the international average.

Read the full article: This Summer Will Be Hottest in History: Experts

The Ministry of the Environment says that the diffusion of Japanese cedar and cypress pollen in Spring 2007 in the Kanto area is likely to be around 25% of a typical year. This is very good news for people who suffer from pollen allergies (花粉症, kafunshou). The amounts are different for different parts of Japan, but in general, it seems like the problem will be mild to normal this year in most places.

Read the press release from the Ministry of the Environment.

Okay, this is not the sexiest of topics, but I think it’s important for people to know about this.

The last day for collecting burnable garbage for this year is December 28 for the north and south districts, and December 29 for the east, west, and special districts. There will be no garbage collection until January 1 in any district. Please do not put your garbage out during the collection holiday.

The last day for collecting large items (粗大ごみ) is December 15 for the north district, December 20 for the east and special districts, December 22 for the south district, and December 27 for the west district. However, there is a procedure to follow when throwing out large items, so you will have to have made a reservation in advance in order to be able to put large items out on these days. There is a limit to how much they can collect in one day, so if you know you will be throwing something large out, be sure to make a reservation well in advance.

It is possible to take some kinds of garbage directly to the Clean Center. However, the Center closes on December 29 at 4:30pm and doesn’t open again until January 3 at 8:30am.

Find out your garbage district
http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/hp/e_hp/guide/garbage.html

After a hard day at work or play (or both!) you are exhausted. Anticipating a warm greeting by family and pets, imagining turning on the stereo, picking up a book or cracking open a cold beverage, your guard might be down. You get nearer to home and your pace picks up, like a trail horse getting close to its stable, and just as you are about to reach for the door… YUUUUCK… you are enwrapped in fine, sticky filaments! You flail and spin around, desperately picking the silky strands from your face and PRAYING TO GOD (even if you are an agnostic) that one of the big fat spiders that lives in your garden in not somewhere about your head or face. A bad end to your day (and the spider’s!).

You have just ruined a good four or five hours’ work that the eight-legged engineer has put into making its elaborate web. This is too, too bad for you too, as plenty of harmful and annoying insects are caught in them. At night when you are walking down your front walk, be alert. If there is no light, you had better take it slow and keep your hand stretched out as a web detector.

The ironic thing is that some Japanese spiders, especially the big, yellow and round-bodied KOGANE-GUMO, in order to protect their creations from being trampled on or walked through, weave clearly visible patterns into their webs. These are called KAKURE-OBI in Japanese, and stabilimenta in English. There is an interesting variety of these patterns and it seems that specialists are still at loss as to their exact function. I had never seen this before coming to Japan, but have heard that they can also be found in England and Australia. Please look for these mysterious designs in webs you may pass by.

Another thing you might notice in this season are the tiny, sand colored sacks, suspended in cobwebs. These are the spiders eggs.

Tsukuba’s spiders are beautiful and abundant. They and their webs are fascinating to look at and photograph. They certainly make you think. They display the most sublime designs found in nature, almost (but not quite) defying the possibility of being the product of random selection, and also nature’s most cruel and terrifying face (what can be more horrifying than watching a spider coldly and efficiently dealing with its unfortunate prey?).

An interesting cultural note is that in Japan there is a story related to a spider’s web which is very similar to the biblical story of the young David hiding from King Saul. In that story, Saul does not enter the cave in which the future king of Israel is hiding because a large spider’s web is covering the entrance.

In the same way, a legend about Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199), the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate, tells how the future warlord, in his youth was hiding from his enemies in the hollow of a tree. Since the opening was covered with a spider’s web, his pursuers did not search inside and find him allowing to go on and change the course of Japanese history.

Enjoy Tsukuba’s beautiful spiders, but you don’t want to get TOO CAUGHT UP. Always proceed with caution at night.

More about spiders at

www.spiderzrule.com/

and

www.amonline.net.au/spiders/.

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan sends updates (in English) about its activities by email almost every day. If you are doing research on the Japanese environment, you might want to subscribe to their mailing list.

Send an e-mail to globe_env@env.go.jp with “Request e-mail service” in the subject line to receive regular English-language environmental news updates by e-mail. Unless otherwise specified, updates will be sent to the e-mail address from which you send your request.

See: http://www.env.go.jp/en/utility/mailnews.html

Today’s report mentioned the publication of the “Environmental Statistics 2007″.

Accumulation and practical use of data related to the environment are crucial for the understanding of the environment and for the effective implementation of environmental preservation measures. On this account, the Ministry of the Environment has published the “Environmental Statistics 2007,” with aggregated data related to the state of the environment, the load on the environment, and measures taken for the environment, from a broad perspective.

See: http://www.env.go.jp/en/headline/headline.php?serial=376

The statistics are available (in Japanese) here:
http://www.env.go.jp/doc/toukei/index.html

Autumn foliage comes late to Tsukuba.  It is already mid-November, and the ginkgo trees (itchoh) are only just starting to yellow. It has been for many weeks, though, that we have been able to enjoy what is probably the most representative color of autumn in the Japanese countryside - the  reddish-orange glow of kaki (柿), persimmons, which seem to grow in the gardens of almost every home in the old neighborhoods of Tsukuba.

Already in late September these warmly hued fruits can be seen hidden among the still verdant leaves of their trees, but by now with most of the foliage gone, the kaki hang heavily on the bare branches, like so many little Halloween ornaments (they could be mistaken from afar for tiny pumpkins). With light conditions just right, they can be absolutely breathtaking. In all the years I’ve been trying, I have never quite been able to adequately capture their special beauty on film.

Though it is possible that some species of persimmon are native to Japan, it is commonly believed that these fruit were introduced to this country from China, probably via the Korean Peninsula sometime during the Heian Period (794-1185). There are legends of how a Buddhist monk wandered Japan on foot, subsisting mostly on the light-weight and nutritious dried persimmons he was carrying, spreading the seeds to every village he passed through (he was a kind of Japanese Johnny Appleseed). These legends also stress how people were impressed by the persimmons curative (anti-bacterial) powers.

Whatever the truth is, the persimmon did in fact spread throughout the land, with more varieties now in Japan than in any other country in the world. It has become an essential part of Japanese culture (in several ways).

As I have said, there are numerous varieties of persimmon in Japan. However, it is important to know that there are two basic types. First there are sweet persimmons (amagaki,甘柿) which can be eaten right off the tree (when ripe), and are sold fresh at stores (in season). Then there are astringent persimmons (shibugaki, 渋柿)), which cannot be eaten raw (they taste chalky!), but can be made edible (and sweet) by drying, heating, or soaking in a little alcohol. These shibugaki are often longer from top to bottom, while amagaki are flatter and wider (though this is not always true!) 

The kaki sold at stores are recently developed varieties which are consistently sweet, with the most famous in this area being fuyu-gaki (富有柿). However, the trees which grow in the gardens of Tsukuba usually are of different varieties which could be either sweet or shibui (chalky), with even the same tree bearing different tastes in different years. It is even possible to have the fruit of the same tree in the same year being different types if different parts of the tree have different light exposure.

If you have any friends who are locals, you are almost certain to get a gift of homegrown kaki. Your friends will probably tell you how sweet they are. If you try one and it is inedible, you can put a dash of alcohol (shochu, for example) on it (and the rest of the batch) and close it up in a plastic bag. By the next day they should be delish. Soaking them in your hot bath will also do the trick.

Since heat is a factor in making them sweet, global warming has been changing the nature of Tsukuba’s kaki culture. Until about 40 years ago, I have heard that shibugaki could be seen drying in the sun from almost every house in Tsukuba. Now, since local trees are producing sweeter and sweeter fruit, it is no longer necessary to dry them for eating. In more northern or mou