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/

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.

In a country where you are given a plastic bag for your box of popcorn when you are at the movie theatre (which I witnessed at the Cineplex last night), I thought there was no hope of seeing the use of plastic shopping bags decrease in my lifetime. I am an enthusiastic user of cloth shopping bags (I have two in my purse at all times and several in the trunk of my car), but I haven’t seen much proof that the “my bag” trend has caught on in Japan in a major way.

All this may start to change on September 1, 2008, at least in Tsukuba, where several major supermarkets will stop giving out free plastic bags with purchases. So far, eleven companies representing 25 individual stores have signed on for this program. The stores will sell plastic bags, but the profits will either go towards point card systems or environmental projects.

Here is a list of participating stores.

A Coop (Katsuragi)
Fresh Yaokane
JA Tsukuba (Yatabe)
Jusco (Tsukuba)
Kadoya (Toyosato, Yatabe)
Kasumi (Tsukuba, Gakuen, Oho, Tsukuba Asse, Technopark Sakura, Umezono, Gran Plechef, Midorino Ekimae)
Marche
Marumo (Gakuen)
Masuda (Kukizaki, Namiki)
New Quick (Tsukuba)
Torisen (Kenkyu Gakuen)
Uomatsu (City Market Uomatsu, Kamigo, Takamihara)
Yamauchi (Takezono, Matsushiro)

Source: Tsukuba City Hall Website

Sunday, March 11, 2007 from 10am to 2pm at Chuo Park (the one with the rocket, just north of Seibu, Jusco, and Q’t, near the public library).

The market will be cancelled if it rains.

May 27, 2007 from 10am to 2pm
Chuo Park (near Tsukuba Public Library, just north of Tsukuba Center on the pedestrian path)

This event will be cancelled in the case of rain.

September 30 from 10am to 2pm
Chuo Park (near Tsukuba Public Library, just north of Tsukuba Center on the pedestrian path)
This event will be cancelled in the case of rain.

Hooray! The Umezono House in Umezono will have new store hours. It was open only on 2^nd Saturdays and Sundays of the month from 9AM (or 10?) to 3PM until last weekend. Using the Umezono House has been very inconvenient since the NPO that runs the shop often changed the bazaar (that’s how the association refers to the shop when it’s open) dates to 1^st , 2nd or to 3^rd weekends of the month, but they didn’t have a website to announce their schedules. Well, they still don’t have a website, but there won’t be any more confusion on bazaar dates starting September because the shop will be open every Sunday from 10Am to 3PM!

For those who are not familiar with the Umezono House, it’s a thrift shop run by Asian Friendship Association which is a Tsukuba Chapter of SAEFI, Group for Supporting Asian Education Fund Ibaraki, and the proceeds from the sales go to SAEFI, disaster relief fund and other international support. They also help and work with international students and residents in this area, so I’m sure some of you who are reading this blog are far more familiar with this group and its activities than I am.

The Umezono House is a one-story house located across the street from the Umezono Park. The “TsukuBus Route 5” stops in front of the Umezono Park, and for those of you who don’t mind a bit of walking, you can also take Kanto Tetsudo Bus and get off at Namiki Danchi Minami which is right in front of the Joyo Bank building on Higashi O-dori.

The shop looks like a regular house, but inside is packed with used and some new clothes, dishes, books, toys, small electric appliances, and lots of other things. A black elementary school bag or randoseru, was still there when I went there last weekend. The Umezono House isn’t like the commercial recycle shop such as Off House, so the items on sale might have some stains and tears. As long as you don’t mind those problems, I think the Umezono House is the place to find the cheapest used clothes, kimonos or yukatas.

If you already have too much stuff in your apartment/house or if you are moving, you can also donate items to the Umezono House. I think they will accept almost anything, but please check with them if you are thinking about donating large furniture or electric appliances. Please note that you will be asked to donate around 300yen per bag or box to cover the cost of shipping used clothes to Asian countries because that’s what the Asian Friendship Association also does.

The shop at the Umezono location will NOT be open next month, but the association will have a booth in Chuo Park during Matsuri Tsukuba next month instead. I think they will have some fair-trade items on sale along with some second-hand items, so please check it out!

The Umezono House: Tsukuba City, Umezono 2-32-6