More than 400 years ago, during Japan’s so-called Warring States Period (Sengoku Jidai), a wooden fortress known as Hanamuro-Jo, stood a few hundred meters northeast of what is now the Hanamuro Intersection (kosaten), not far from Tsukuba Center. No one is certain exactly how many years this fortification stood, as there are no extant records bearing this information, however, there is documentation of Hanamuro-Jo still having [...]
Continue reading about “Miracle Working” Stone Still Has Devotees in Tsukuba and Beyond
Japan’s month long rainy season (tsuyu, 梅雨) usually ends in mid-July, and that means there are precious few days left to savor its SPECIAL BEAUTY. Many Japanese consider Ajisai (紫陽花, or hydrangea) to be the quintessential flower of this season, as they look just right when wet, and enshrouded in mist. And though these flowers can be found almost anywhere [...]
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 [...]
Continue reading about Advisory for smog was issued yesterday
At the Tsukuba International Exchange Fair last weekend, there were some people handing out flyers about registering your bone marrow (骨髄, こつずい). When I was handed a flyer, I remembered reading about a fellow foreign resident of Japan who needed to find a bone marrow donor, so I decided to go and get my [...]
For those of you who have been in Japan for at least one summer, you know what it’s like to suffer from ‘natsubate,’ known in English as summer fatigue. I never really noticed it back home but in Japan the heat combined with the humidity factor really gets to me.
To figure out if you [...]
tsukubans speak