Buying Tickets to Dispose of Large Items
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.
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Clean Up Tsukuba
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.
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Cleaning Up the City
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.
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Closed for the Holidays
For those of you who are spending your first new year's in Tsukuba, please note that MANY businesses and services are closed during this holiday.
The most important things to remember are (1) to withdraw some money before the banks and ATMs close and (2) to make sure you take your garbage out before the trucks stop coming!
Garbage
The last day of garbage collection is tomorrow (Monday, December 29). The next garbage day will be Saturday, January 3 and burnable garbage will be collected on that day in all parts of Tsukuba. The Clean Center is also closed from December 30 to January 2 so if tomorrow is not a burnable garbage day in your area and you cannot take your garbage to the Clean Center, you have to keep it until January 3.
Source: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/266/003391.html
Joyo Bank
Every bank is different, so I will just mention the situation for Joyo. The banks will be operating pretty much as normal on Monday (29) and Tuesday (30). They will then be closed from the 31 to the 4th and open up again on the 5th.
ATMs will have limited or no service between December 30 and January 4. All ATMs will be closed on January 1. This includes accessing your Joyo account through an ATM at 7-11. Some ATMs will be in operation on the other dates, but not all, and the ones that are in operation will mostly be on "holiday" hours. Regular ATM service will resume on Monday, January 5.
Online banking will be completely unavailable on January 1 and will have limited availability on December 31, and January 2 to 4th. All online transactions that occur after December 30 will not be processed until January 5. (So if you want to send money to someone by online furikomi and you want it to arrive before January 5, you will have to send it on December 30 at the latest.)
Sources: http://www.joyobank.co.jp/top/20081217.html and http://www.joyobank.co.jp/access-j/info.html
Postal Banking
Postal banking will be available as usual on Monday (29) and Tuesday (30). Teller services will not be available between December 31 and January 4. Regular teller services will resume on January 5.
Postal ATMs will be available as usual on Monday (29) and Tuesday (30) and they will close early (between 5pm and 8pm) on Wednesday (31). ATMs will not be available between January 1 and 3. They will open again between 7am and 9am on January 4. They will operate as usual on January 5.
Online banking will not be available from 11:50pm on December 31 to 6:30am on January 4.
Source: http://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/news/2008/news_id000345.html
City Hall
Tsukuba City Hall is closed from December 27 to January 4. The Sakura Branch office will be open on Sunday January 4 for limited services relating to issuing certificates such as inkan certificates or certificates of registered matters for foreigners. All branches will resume normal operations on January 5.
Source: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/266/003391.html
Library
Tsukuba Public Library is closed from December 28 to January 5.
Source: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/266/003391.html
Community Centers
All community centers (公民館, kominkan) will be closed from December 29 to January 3.
Source: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/266/003391.html
Children's Centers
All children's centers (児童館, jidokan) will be closed from December 27 to January 4.
Source: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/266/003391.html
Tsukuba Express
The trains will continue to run throughout the holidays, but will be on "holiday" schedules from December 30 to January 4.
Some extra trains have been scheduled on December 31. The last train that will reach Tsukuba on the night of December 31 will leave at 12:40am from Akihabara and arrive in Tsukuba at 1:37am. It will stop at every station. (Three trains will leave after that time, but they will all terminate at Moriya and will not come to Tsukuba.)
The last train to leave Tsukuba will be at 11:47pm and it will arrive in Akihabara at 12:45am, stopping at every station.
Source: https://www.mir.co.jp/uploads/20081211092155.pdf
TsukuBus
TsukuBus will run as usual.
Source: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/266/003391.html
Emergency Services
Call an ambulance (119) if there is an emergency where time is of the essence. In case you ever need to call an ambulance, you should memorize how to say your address in Japanese, and keep a copy of your address in romaji posted near the phone or on the refrigerator so others can call from your house.
Call 029-241-4199 to find out where to bring a sick person whose condition is not in need of urgent attention.
There is also a hotline to call for advice about whether your sick child needs immediate medical care or not: 029-254-9900 (or #8000 from a regular phone or cellphone).
In all cases, you will most likely have to speak Japanese.
The following hospitals will have some services available on the following days (but it is probably better to call 029-241-4199 to find out where to bring a person first).
December 30: Tsukuba Kinen Hospital
January 1: Tsukuba Soai Hospital
January 2: Tsukuba Gakuen Hospital, Tsukuba Kinen Hospital
January 3: Tsukuba Chuo Hospital
January 4: Tsukuba Soai Hospital
Source: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/266/003391.html
I hope you have a very happy holiday! (Just don't forget to get some money out before the banks close!!!)
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Cost of Waste Management in Tsukuba
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.
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