TsukuBlog

(No, Tsukuba You World doesn’t pay me for doing this, in case you are wondering!)

Tsukuba You World is currently celebrating its 7th Anniversary, and you can take advantage of their special offers and events.

Cineplex Tsukuba
1) 1000yen admission day - July 8, Sunday
2) Meet Picachu and Shrek - July 7 and 8
11:25AM, 13:30PM, and 15:40PM on both days.
(Expect the chaos!)
3) Quiz rally

Spa You World
1) Special drama performances from July 1 to July 30
2) 1050yen admission day and free gifts to first 250 people - July 8

For You World’s free bus services, please read this post:
Parking at You World & Free bus service
Shrek 3 Schedule:
Schedule for Shrek3 at Cineplex Tsukuba

Repsa Mall, a strip mall along Route 354, just minutes from You World will also be holding their big summer event this weekend, so it’s not hard to imagine how horrible the traiffic on that stretch of Route 354 will be this weekend.

All the way gloomy days during the 4th till the 6th of July were all worth it by threading the way to and around Tohoku, Japan. Tōhoku (東北), which literally means “East-North” is the northeastern region of Japan’s Honshu (mainland) island. Tohoku is a host to many museums and temples and it has over a dozen of listed tourist attractions, ranging from parks to rivers and mountains.

The trip was organized by the International Students Center of the University of Tsukuba. It was a 3-days hop to the three (3) prefectures of Tohoku namely, Iwate, Miyagi and Yamagata.

The first prefecture we went to was Iwate. Take a peek at the photos I took. (1. Inside a restaurant 2. One of the temples in Chusonji compund 3. Miyazawa Kenji Museum)

Next destination was Matsushima, Miyagi prefecture. (1. Akiu Ootaki 2. Inside a museum 3. During the bay cruise)

And the last one was Yamagata prefecture. (1. Inside a museum 2. Yamagata ken souvenir shop 3. Cherry fuits)

Although the trip was a little bit tiresome by just sitting inside the bus, the tour guide’s efforts were worth mentioning, trying to be awake and genki (energetic and lively) all the time while all of us are dead tired slumbering in our seats.

The full of memorable stories museums in Iwate, the wonderful splashing waters of the Ootaki in Miyagi, and the tasteful cherries in Yamagata, all made the 3 days trip worth treasuring.

For the rest of the photos in bigger resolution, you may view them in my Zooomr album.

There is a beautiful full moon tonight. Just as it SHOULD be for the O-Bon festival, but RARELY IS. Since the Japanese have switched over from their old lunar based calendar in 1873, it has been very uncommon for the 15th of August (or July in Tokyo) to actually fall on the 15th of the lunar month (which is a full moon). This year is one of those rare years, and it has provided extra atmosphere to the various BON related events going on tonight around Japan. These are mostly BON-ODORI community dance events. Until the early decades of the 20th century, BON-ODORI were danced in most communities around here, but were most famous (for their bacchanalia) on Mt. Tsukuba. For some reason ALL of these dance events including those on the mountain have gone the way of the Japanese ibis (toki), and by that I mean “disappeared”. Maybe it was the BAWDINESS of the Tsukuba-san events which lead to their doom (after the puritan western influence of the Meiji years)?

There was an interesting event which took place tonight that included Bon dancing, as well as professional Enka entertainment and a unique rain invocation ceremony. I’m talking about the Karakasa-Mando at Niihari’s Washi Shrine. I have been there before but unfortunately could not make it today (even though I came back from Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine today intending to go to Niihari). It is a perfect place to experience a small village summer festival, swarthy night-air with the girls in colorful yukata, lots of food stalls, festival music (hayashi) and plenty of speeches.

My first time at that event I had really wanted to get a good seat for watching the Karakasa, a kind of giant tanabata decoration, which when lit, sizzles like a roman candle. I found a good spot, sat down, and waited for the big moment. I waited and waited, in the dark. My eyes grew accustomed the lack of light and my pupils probably expanded to there limit. When the fuse was finally lit and the Karakasa burst into life, I was completely and painfully BLINDED. After the few seconds it took to adjust my eyes, the Karakasa had burned itself out. I didn’t see anything! I could do nothing but laugh at the absurdity of having waited so long in anticipation. If you want to have a look (and listen) though, see this page.

As I said before I spent the day (as I usually do on August 15th) at controversial Yasukuni Shrine, where tens of thousands passed through in the PULVERIZING HEAT to pay their respects to the soldiers who have fallen in Japan’s wars since the Meiji Restoration (1868), with special emphasis on WWll, since it was on this day that that war ended.

I have many amazing things to tell and lots of pictures as well, but its been a very long day and you probably don’t want to hear about it until tomorrow.

OYASUMI

It’s really cooled down over the past few days here in Tsukuba. I have had to use my heater quite often already, and last night I used my electric heating blanket for the first time this year. After living in Japan for so many years, I generally don’t have many complaints about my life here, but there are two things that I have never quite come to terms with: the lack of central heating, and the fact that ATMs close at night.

I am not in the mood to get into a rage about the ATMs right now, but I think it is time for my yearly rant about heating. Why, oh why is there no insulation in my apartment building? Why are the glass doors that lead to my veranda not double-glazed or whatever they should be to keep the draft out? And why doesn’t someone invent a cheap, efficient, and environmentally friendly way to heat homes??? Why do I have to freeze my bottom off every morning as I wait for my all-but-useless heater (I’m not allowed to use a kerosene heater in my apartment — and that’s fine because they stink too much anyway) to get the room up to a comfortable temperature? And, of course, it only reaches that temperature just as I am about to leave (if it does at all).

Please, please, please someone out there do something so I don’t have to freeze from November to March every year!

Tsukuba City will seize on its 20th anniversary and introduce “English” license plates for small-sized special motor vehicles* and mopeds starting November 30. The City hopes to boost its image as an “international city,” and hopes that the new license plates will also contribute to local revitalization and local tourism. The new license plate is not mandatory, so you can keep using the current one.
*The vehicles with engine displacement less than 125cc and special vehicles such as farm machinery.

Here’s what the new license plate will look like (screen shot of the city website):

You can apply at Tsukuba, Taiho, Sakura, Toyosato, Kukizaki and Yatabe Offices (or you can download this page here).

Download the list of things you need to bring to the city hall when applying for the new license plate here.

By the way, Narita City started issuing the E-license plates for mopeds last November, so some people criticize the Tsukuba City for “trying to be Narita and trying to just ‘look’ like an international city.” Some people, on the other hand, pointed out that “Tsukuba” on a license plate will remind them of “Tsu**ya,” a book store we all know, or “Tsubak*” a very popular shampoo name. LOL

I didn’t mention this earlier (because giving speeches makes me nervous!), but I am giving at talk about “International Relations in Tsukuba” at the January Coffee Hour today from 2pm at the Tsukuba Information Center.

I am going to talk about whether Tsukuba really is an “international” city. I think that it hasn’t reached that goal yet. I am going to give some suggestions for making Tsukuba a more welcoming place for foreign people.

First of all, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I think that we should offer an orientation program or seminar session two times a year (April and October) for people who arrive in Tsukuba. Also, we should develop a welcome package of information that can be given to foreign people when they register at city hall. And, ideally, we should offer a homestay/buddy program to help newcomers make connections with Japanese people and foreign people in the city as soon as they arrive.

Second, I think the Ibaraki International Association needs to offer more activities that allow for true interaction between foreign people and Japanese people. Ikebana and tea ceremony lessons put Japanese people above foreigners, and coffee hour speeches put foreigners above Japanese people. We need to have more events where people can interact on an equal footing, such as sporting events or classes in something that is not necessarily related to Japanese culture (so we can learn about it together, as equals).

Third, I think that the international community in Tsukuba lacks a focus. I think that Tsukuba Information Center could serve a greater purpose in the lives of foreigners as a focal point to the community. As it is now, I think a few people make use of the center, but it is not living up to its potential. The facilities are incredible, the location is prime, but the programs that it offers are somewhat uninspired. We need to shake things up and make it more of an entity that plays a part in the lives of foreigners here in Tsukuba.

Finally, I think the city and the prefecture should put their resources together to hire a full-time, foreign “Co-ordinator for International Relations” (CIR). Right now, there are one or two foreigners working in the city hall, but they are not full-time and, in my opinion, the pay that they receive is not commensurate with their abilities, so there is no incentive for them to stay for very long or for them to want to implement new and exciting programs. Also, working within the framework of city hall is very restrictive. The prefecture’s international association might be able to offer a better working environment. I think that Tsukuba desperately needs some qualified, innovative, and enthusiastic foreign people working to improve international relations in the city. Without that input or stimulus, the city just seems to recycle the same old ideas over and over again.

So, in case you miss it, that is what I am planning on saying. The speech will be in Japanese mainly, but the slides are bilingual and I am including a discussion session in the middle of the speech to try to stimulate conversation about this topic. If you are interested in these ideas, please feel free to come by and voice your opinion.

Jing Villareal came to Tsukuba two months ago with his wife and daughter. He has most generously offered to share some of the photos and videos that he has taken since he arrived here.

Photos by Jing Villareal
Videos by Jing Villareal

Jing also supplied the new header for the blog, a photo of flaming leaves in Doho Park. Thank you, Jing!

If anyone else would like to have us showcase their Tsukuba-related photos or video (or art, or anything else), please contact us!

Most of the days during Japan’s month long rainy season (tsuyu), are overcast and damp, even when there is no actual precipitation. When it IS raining, it is as if your town or city has been transported into the shadowy depths of a thick, wet , forest. It can stay like that for days. For this reason, Japan is a veritable paradise for MOSS (koke苔), which thrives in such conditions. Taking a June stroll, umbrella in hand, within the precincts of some old shrine or temple is like an in-depth tour of the WORLD OF GREEN, with  mosses of varying degrees of verdure growing on stones, tree trunks, or the ground, forming delightful combinations.

It is clear that the darkness of the rainy season and the deep warm shades of moss have had a huge impact on Japanese aesthetics. For example, compare the Buddhist temples or clothes from the brighter lands of India or Thailand, with those of Japan. There are often bright, bold or shimmery colors and surfaces, which are needed so as not to be washed out by the brightness of the sun. In shadowy Japan, different , darker ,colors, more natural and earthy ,came to be utilized and loved. Moss and moss green have been an important part of this sensibility. This can be seen most clearly in Japanese gardening and landscaping, the cultivation of miniature trees (bonsai) and in fabric design.

There are several temples which are actually famous for their moss gardens, including Saiho-Ji and Gio-ji in Kyoto. Nearer to Tsukuba is Myoho-Ji in Kamakura. (Did you know that JR trains can be taken directly to Kamakura from Tsuchiura or Ushiku Stations during the summer?) These are nationally renowned Koke-dera (moss temples), but it is by no means necessary to leave our city to partake in the pleasures of moss viewing. As I mentioned above, the sacred grove of any shrine or the grounds of any temple will do, especially on rainy days.

Unfortunately, the same conditions which allow moss to thrive are favored by various types of mould and mildew and foreigners who come to live in Japan are driven to despair by their relentless proliferation. Walls, books, photos, are all common victims. Once I discovered that a pair of white sneakers I wanted to wear had turned black with mould! This is  not just a nuisance, but a health hazard as well.

Of course, this is a problem for the Japanese, too, but since their ancestors have had to deal with the problem for millennia, there are plenty of bits  of folk knowledge passed down from generation to generation which help  to cope.

The most important point to remember is good ventilation. Make sure that the air in a particular room does not stagnate too long. Whenever the sun DOES shine you might want to let its rays do their work on anything you are worried might get mouldy. Remember: the light of day is the best disinfectant!

A more recently developed trick for dealing with mold was introduced to me by Harumi Takaya, who is always a great source of information about traditional life in Tsukuba. This is the use of baking soda. For example, baking soda mixed in with your laundry detergent at a ratio of 3 to 1 will prevent your laundry from getting moldy (if like most Japanese, you don’t have a dryer). Putting a mixture of baking soda and water into a spray bottle and spritzing it on the walls etc… is also a good idea.

Don’t let the darkness and the rain get you down! Go out and explore Japans endless SHADES OF GREEN! For the summer months THESE are the Emerald Isles!

According to A. Takahashi’s impressively comprehensive TRADITIONAL EVENTS IN AND AROUND TSUKUBA website, there are nine Gion Festivals taking place at Yasaka Shrines within the Tsukuba City limits alone this weekend, and about a dozen more Gion-sai of interest happening in the surrounding area. Since no machine has yet been invented which would allow me to be at all the events at once, and since I didn’t want to rush around  getting quick and superficial looks at the different matsuri around town, I decided to stay close to home and stroll down to my own neighborhood’s Yasaka Jinja (八坂神社) for a detailed examination of this weekends festivities. 

As I have explained in previous articles, Gion Festivals originated in Kyoto in the 9th century as a way of trying to rid the city of summertime epidemics by appealing to the Gods enshrined at the Yasaka Jinja, Gozu Tenno (actually a Buddhist deity) and his native Shinto counterpart Susanoo no Mikoto. These early events must have done the trick, with their music and strange floats, as they have been celebrated almost annually for more than a thousand years and the Gion-type festivals have spread from the ancient capital to all corners of the archipelago.

From my house in Tsukuba, there are two Yasaka shrines within easy walking distance. One, in the neighborhood called Higashioka is located in a woods on the grounds of the Sakura City Office. The other is down the road in an old village (buraku) called Konda. The characters used to spell this name are 金 and 田, which are usually read kaneda and which literally mean golden rice fields. As I walked towards the shrine I thought these characters perfectly appropriate with the sprawling paddy fields a deep green, rustling in the wind, and the impressive and large (by any country’s standard) homes, surrounded by walls, with imposing gates through which could be spied well groomed Japanese gardens. The forested hills on which lie the ruins of the medieval forts of Hanamuro and Konda framed this picturesque scene.

For this weekend each home had put out a special festival lantern and older residents had set up chairs in front of their gates from which to watch festivities. Those participating were all dressed in their specially made Konda festival wear and everyone was in good cheer, with many obviously having had more than just one beer.

There was a portable stage set up on the back of a pick-up truck upon which the local musicians and dancers performed their Konda Hayashi, with flute gongs and dancers dressed in lion masks or comic masks. These performances are based on the Hayashi of the Ishioka Gion Festival.

I followed this musical pickup truck towards the shrine itself which was full of fresh offerings. Tents were set up on the precincts to dispense beer and I was quickly given a heaping cupful.

The portable Shrine (O-Mikoshi) was all ready to be paraded through the town and the locals insisted that I join them. Konda’s mikoshi is said to be more than 300 years old and it is NOT LIGHT. Shouldering portable shrines can often lead to a feeling of religious euphoria as the great effort required, the dealing with the pain and the heat, the rhythmic chanting and shouting can carry you into a trance-like state. We paused at several places, had some more beers and had plenty of good ole male bonding.

As the sun went down and the air got cooler the excitement built. The people lining the roads cheered, the music from the pick-up picked up, and our mikoshi carrying worked into a frenzy.

I took a pause and looked around at the amazing scene: smiling families dressed in traditional wear; the antique omikoshi; the masked dancers; the grand old houses.

I was really happy to be in Japan.

Check A. Takahashi’s website and try to get to a Gion Festival near you.

It was the 27th, and July is an odd numbered month (the 7th), so I knew where I could find Mrs. Okamino. I built up the determination to step out of my house and into the throbbing heat. With notebook and pen in hand and a squint on my face, I slowly walked around the corner and headed towards the Sakura City Office. About a hundred meters later, I came to an old wooden structure covered with an out-of-place red tin roof. When I saw that the doors and shutters were open and the cushions were airing out in the sun I felt reassured. And, just like clockwork, there she was, broom in hand, vigorously sweeping the grounds of this old neighborhood meeting hall where women regularly gather gather to pray for health, fertility, and easy delivery.

Tsukuba has been changing rapidly with plenty of new buildings and a large influx of out-of-towners. Stiil, with all the dramatic changes, the city can be seen as being a collection of villages which retain their own identities. The community spirit can most easily be recognized by outside observers in the village Matsuri (festivals). If you look more carefully, however, you will find other signs of what life was like before this area was turned into The Science City.

One interesting feature of the village (shuraku or buraku) is the meeting hall (shukaijo). Now many of these have been rebuilt as what look like prefabricated sheds. However, you can still find several meeting halls that are used for KO (講）which are traditional wooden structures which could be mistaken for a small shrine or temple. Ko are prayer or study meetings which became popular in this region in the Edo Period (1600-1868). There are a confusing variety of ko, and I have described the most popular one, The Ko of the 19th (ju ku ya ko,十九夜講) in an Alien Times article.

Mrs. Okamino was concentrating deeply on her sweeping and did not notice my approach. I almost felt bad that I was going to disturb her, but I was determined to talk to her about that night’s Fudo-Ko and to get some pictures of the inside of the Fudo Hall, especially of the fearsome statue of Fudo-Myoo,whom the women respectfully refer to as Fudo-Sama,which I had only ever had a peek at  through the grating of at the front of the hall. 

For many generations, a Fudo-Ko (women’s prayer meeting in front of the image of Fudo Myoo) has been held at this worship hall in Higashioka. It had always been held once a month, on the 27th, but now with it getting harder and harder to get the neighborhood women together (only eight regularly gather now), the frequency has been reduced to one meeting every other month.

The women take turns being toban, the person in charge of preparing food and tea, and they get together at about 8 pm, chanting the Dainichi Kyo Sutra which they all know by heart. This is done before an impressive wooden image of Fudo Myoo (不働明王), one of the 5 Deva Kings to have been introduced to Japan in the 9th century by the great Buddhist priest Kukai in the 9th century. For some reason, Fudo, the Unmoveable One, became the most popular of these frightening figures, and a cult of Fudo spread throughout the islands, with special success in the Kanto Area, where he was worshiped by both warriors and peasants alike.The most famous place known for its worship of Fudo is Narita-San Temple(Shinsho-Ji),one of the most visited in all of Japan This popularity is interesting because in India and China it is RARE to find an image of Fudo alone (one that is not part of the group of all five myoo). I have not yey been able to determine just why this particular figure was so attractive for the Japanese.

The Fudo image at the Higashioka worship hall is impressive indeed with his sword and rope and halo of flames. What a contrast to the serene Niorin Kannon image worshipped at the Ju ku ya ko(19th night Ko). This difference in countenance,however, does not indicate a difference in objective, as the Fudo Myoo uses his fiercely determined expression to bring people to an understanding of Buddhism. He is believed to bring good health and easy delivery,prevent disaster and even bring monetary success.

Certainly, sitting in the old hall, smelling of ancient tatami mats, with Fudo glaring down as the rhythmic chanting pounds in their ears, could not help but make worshipers reflect on their ways and consider taking the correct, middle path .

Of the dozen or so Ko regularly practiced in this area before WW2, only about 4 are still actively being kept alive. Just acroos the Hanamuro River in Saiki, there is another very interesting Fudo Hall which I will discuss in a future posting.

There is no listing of these events online or in any printed form. The best way to get information about a Ko near you is to speak to the older people in your neighborhood. They will be very glad to hear that you are interested.

When I was driving around today, I noticed a house somewhere near or in the Higashi area of Tsukuba (between AIST Central and 354) that is surrounded by garbage. I don’t mean that the owners forgot to take their garbage out a couple of times — I mean the house was literally surrounded on all sides by gargage. Garbage of all shapes and sizes was strapped onto the sides of the house. What’s up with that?

Unfortunately, I was a bit lost when I happened upon the house, so I don’t remember where it was exactly (other than that it was somewhere near Higashi).

This is from the TAIRA mailing list:

The City of Tsukuba would like to announce that the 2006 English edition of the “LIVING IN TSUKUBA” GUIDEBOOK FOR FOREIGN RESIDENTS publication is now ready and available at the Sakura Branch Office of Tsukuba City Hall. It will soon be distributed to all City Hall branch offices. In Japan, it is called the “Tsukuba-shi Zaijyuu Gaikokujin no tame no Seikatsu Benri-cho”or “Seikatsu Benri-cho” for short.

This publication, with updated information (current as of late Winter/Spring 2006) is distributed for free by the City of Tsukuba as a service to non-Japanese residents of Tsukuba. The English language version also features information written in Japanese which may or may not be the original version. In most cases, the data was originally translated from the original Japanese article, but in some cases, information was translated from English. Other portions were written based on the experiences of foreign residents. This edition looks similar to the previous edition of 2004. Much older versions are available at the Tsukuba Central Library (Chuo Toshokan).

In July they dart about, like little fighter planes, over the ripening paddy fields, gracefully grabbing up mosquitoes and other harmful bugs. They are working at a frenzied pace, as their young, numbering as many as seven, are getting bigger and bigger, and need more and more nourishment before they finally leave the nest and find food on their own.However, though they have a professional baseball team named after them and a shinkansen train, as well, swallows, or tsubame (燕), are not getting the respect they have grown used to.

These famed harbingers of spring arrive in the Kanto area in April, having flown great distances from southern China,and as far as Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. In Japan, swallows have come to live closely with humans, mostly nesting in settled areas, including large cities. They make their mud and grass nests under the eaves of houses and shops and usually return to the SAME HOUSE every year, OFTEN ON THE SAME DATE! The annual return of the tsubame has been considered a happy occasion by their host families. Having your house or shop selected by the swallows for nesting has traditionally been considered highly auspicious and you can still find home-owners and shop-keepers putting out boxes or newspapers to catch the droppings and maybe even putting up a screen or wind-shield for additional protection. In older villages and towns and in the older sections of large cities, one nest or more under the eaves of an old building, with chicks poking their beaks out expectantly waiting for their mothers return, as their father stands guard close by, is an endearing image of a Japan quickly disappearing.

Year by year, the swallows are finding themselves less and less welcome. The traditional belief in the luck that the swallows bring is being gradually replaced by the the modern worship of THE STERILE and clean, and by this I mean an intense dislike of bugs, large trees, animals or anything else that smacks of DIRTY.

These days, proud owners of little, plastic, half-million dollar houses, are most likely to have swallows nests quickly removed or more cruelly just closed off, separating parents from young.

Still, the old values come to the rescue sometimes. Here is a story about the swallows at Misao Ito’s house in Kukizaki. Misao lives in a grand old neighborhood, just across the street from Mrs. Noguchi’s (of the mask fame) thatched-roof manor house. Her family decided to knock down their old house and build a modern style home, one which did not seem appropriate for swallows nests.

When her family was looking into ways of removing the nest which had been constructed by their front door, the neighbors came to intervene. Don’t destroy the nest, they warned. If you do that youre house might burn down!

They told Misao’s family that having the nest would bring good fortune to the family and that if the number of chicks hatched was an odd number, they should celebrate by eating sekihan (red rice for festive occasions). The Ito`s followed their neighbors advice and in the end all parties were satisfied. The birds raised their young,the kids enjoyed watching the dramatic, private nature show on their front porch and the neighbors are at ease, because tradition was not broken. And most of all their is the anticipation of the same birds return next spring and the spring after that.

With more and more swallows returning from overseas to find themselves unwelcome, I think it’s time to re-instill in everyone this old excitement which the swallow used to bring.

Besides their miraculous annual return, they are beautiful, graceful, hardworking parents, who eliminate plenty of mosquitoes (without poisons)!

Why shouldn’t we welcome them! 

You can find many nests with chicks in them under the walkway of the Art and Physical Education Department of Tsukuba University. Parent birds can be seen for the next few days scrambling for as many insects as they can catch. Watching them over the deep green, young rice plants is the best way to view them in Tsukuba.

There are a number of good mailing lists in Japan. Some of these lists are mainly for discussion, others for buying and selling things, and others for asking for help. It can be hard to find out about these lists, as many of them do not have websites, so I thought I would compile a list of some of the ones I know about.

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FOR PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN TSUKUBA

International Women’s Network
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intlwomen
Information from and for women in Tsukuba

Tsukuba Area International Residents Association (TAIRA)
http://eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp
Information, sales, events — with over 800 members, this is THE email list to belong to in Tsukuba.

Tsukuba Insight Forum (TIF)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Tsukuba_insight
Discussions and information about Tsukuba on a smaller scale than TAIRA.

Tsukuba International Students
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsukubastudent/
Information for university students in Tsukuba

Tsukuba Walking and Mountaineering Club (TWMC)
http://eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp/twmc
Learn about TWMC and its activities.

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FOR WOMEN IN JAPAN

Married in Japan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarriedinJapan/
For women who are married or in a relationship with a Japanese man

Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese
http://www.afwj.org/index.html
This website is also for women married to Japanese men. It is somewhat similar to MIJ but it has more events and there is an annual membership fee.

Digital Eve Japan
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/de-japan/
IT issues for women

International Women in Communications
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iwicjapan
Discussion and information for women who work in communications.

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MONEY, BUYING AND SELLING USED ITEMS

Freecycle Japan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecyclejapan
Give things away for free. Ask for something for free. Perfect for sayonara sales where you don’t really care about getting 1000 yen for your toaster. Buyer generally pays for shipping (COD).

Frugal Japan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/frugaljapan
Learn how to live frugally in the world’s most expensive country.

Tell and Sell Japan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TellandSellJapan
Buy and sell things within Japan. Perfect for sayonara sales. Buyer
generally pays for shipping (COD).

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BUSINESS, POLITICS

Community in Japan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/communityinjapan
Discussion group about the rights of foreign people in Japan. Debates can get quite heated on various topics, but people are generally well-behaved. You can learn about new laws and legal cases involving foreign people in Japan.

***************************************
PETS

Angels with Fur
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AngelsWithFur
Discussion group about having pets in Japan.

Jing Villereal, Tsukublog’s resident videographer (okay, he doesn’t belong to us, but we sure wish he did!), captured the snow falling on various parts of our fair city.

The current TsukuBlog banner, “The Day Snow Fell in Tsukuba”, is also by Jing. (If you can’t see the new banner, please press F5 or refresh your browser.)

There will be some helicopter training days in January, so you might hear some loud sounds on these days.

January 23 from 5:06pm to 6:06pm
January 26 from 5:13pm to 6:13pm

If the weather is bad on these days, they will be changed to January 24 and 29, respectively.

I think it is funny that they gave the exact times in the announcement rather than just saying that it would happen between 5pm and 7pm. Do we really need to know that it will start at 5:06pm? I have noticed this in the past. Japanese seems to require a lot more precision than English, at least when it comes to time. It’s funny, because when I am translating, I usually have to deal with the opposite problem: English writing style usually demands a great deal more precision than Japanese. This concept of precision is quite interesting. I wonder if anyone has done studies on the precision requirements in different languages/cultures.

If you haven’t been to Tsukuba You World in a while, you might be shocked to hear this: the parking there now cost you money.

There are still a lot of free parking spaces, but it’ll be nearly impossible to park in free parking spaces on weekends and sometimes even on weeknights. The parking will be free if you purchase something at Yamada Denki, but Cineplex Tsukuba won’t reimburse the parking fee. Summer “blockbuster season” has started, and Tsukuba You World gets even more crowded. If you are new to this area, stay away from Route 354 during the rush hour, especially around the opening day of a popular movie! (Tip: the opening of Harry Potter is July 20, but the advance screenings are held on July 14 to 16. )

If you live too far to get to the movie theater by bicycle, then you can ue their free bus service from Tsukuba Station.

You World Shuttle Bus Schedule
*** more services have been added on July 1, so please call 029-839-5555 (Japanese) to check the latest schedule! ***
Weekdays
Departing from Tsukuba Station*- 11:10AM/12:30PM
Departing from You World - 16:30PM/17:40PM/20:20PM
Weekends
From Tsukuba Station - 11:10AM/12:30PM
From You World - 17:00PM/18:20PM/19:40PM/21:00PM
*I think by Tsukuba Station, they mean “Tsukuba Center Bus Terminal.”
Tsukuba You World website (Japanese)

I live in Ichinoya Minami Dormitory and as such, have to dwell with its inhabitants: a full mixture of Japanese, Brazilians, Americans, Chinese, Koreans, Latinos, Africans and… pigeons!!!

Everybody hates the pigeons!!!

If we leave the kitchen windows open, it is not unlikely to find some of those creatures wandering over the table, eyes wide open, leaving feathers and other unwanted detritus everywhere.

They wake us up too, and this happens overly often and overly early!

Last summer I was facing my own hell as a first year graduate student at Tsukuba, which translates as staying awake all night, trying to understand gruesome equations and finish unsolvable “shukudais”.

As some of you might have noticed, summer in Tsukuba is too hot and full of bugs.

If I was to study in my room, I had to face the following trade-off: I could let the window open, to withstand the heat, but the bugs would eat me alive when I went to sleep. Alternatively, I could leave the room inaccessible to the bugs by closing the window and work inside a sauna.

My choice, thus, often involved moving to the collective kitchen so that I could protect my room from bugs and leave the kitchen’s windows open.

By that time, there was nothing more irritating than to hear a couple of pigeons that decided to set their nest right in the kitchens chimney. Everyday, at around 4 a.m, when I was already exhausted and frustrated, they started to make noises!

And I know very well what was happening there!!!

The sounds were very easy to identify! Those pigeons were making love, having a good time, while I could not be more miserable!!!!

This summer, I found out that one pigeon has laid eggs on my veranda!

A friend of mine previously had the same experience. When I asked him whether this bothered him and what he was going to do, he replied:

“This is just like when your teenager daughter gets pregnant. You don’t like the situation a bit, you can be angry, complain, whatever, but in the end, you have to help!”

That pigeon, I thought, has more rights to the varanda than me. While I am a guest in this country, she is for sure a fully-blooded Japanese pigeon. She deserves that varanda more than I do!

Since then, I have been protecting the nest from the rain and trying not to make noise, so as not to disturb the mama pigeon!!!

Okay, so a guy emails me yesterday. He and his wife are in a bind because she has just been diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer. She is 34. He doesn’t have a car, so he can’t take her to the hospital. He lives about 30 minutes away from Tsukuba. We have good hospitals here, so she has to come here for chemotherapy. (At least I assume that is why they have to come here for treatment.) So, I write up a letter to send to a local mailing list that i belong to (TAIRA) and send it out. I sent it after 1am last night. It is now 6:45am. I have already received replies from 7 people who have volunteered to drive them. I have had a “somewhat challenging” week and have been depressed about the state of humanity, what with all the bad news lately. But this is helping to cheer me up immensely.

I am so proud of my fellow Tsukubans today.

There is a second “moral” to this story. If you are a woman, find a way to get tested for breast cancer. Here is an excerpt from his letter to me.

========================

Even if no one is able to help, there is message worth reading. My partner has breast cancer, and we discovered it a little too late. She is in an advanced stage because it went undetected for about 7 years and has spread to her lymphatic system and sternum. She just turned 34 years old this month. What woman in her twenties thinks she should have breast cancer screening? Every woman should. Early detection is treatable and curable. Treatment for stages III and IV are just life-prolonging measures.

========================

I believe that Tsukuba City Hall offers a women’s health checkup once a year, but I am not sure of the content of the checkup exactly. The next time I get a notice in the mail, I will check the contents of the checkup and post the information here.

OK, sub sandwich fans, you won’t need to go to Tokyo to eat subs anymore. The first SUBWAY restaurant in Tsukuba will be open in “Q’t” on August 9, Thursday!
Please see:http://www.creo-sq.com/event_info/0707/sub_w.html

If you can’t wait that long (LOL), then what you can do is to visit the other SUBWAY restaurant in Moriya City. A new shopping mall called “Loc City” opened near the TX Moriya Station on June 28, and SUBWAY made its debut in Ibaraki.

You can also search for other SUBWAY locations in Japan in English:
Store Information

and download cupons (thanks “B” for the info!) :
http://www.subway.co.jp/about/webcoupon.html
(you might not be able to open the pdf if you are using the older verison of Firefox)

The TAIRA server has been down for a few days. Do you feel quite disconnected? Tadashi — the man who has kindly maintained and managed the server for us over the years — is working on the problem and hopes to get it fixed soon. In the meantime, let me give you some options if you feel like you need to chat with people, get some advice, or buy and sell things.

Where to go for Advice about Living in Tsukuba

For students: Tsukuba International Students mailing list
For women: International Women’s Network
For everyone: Tsukuba Insight Forum mailng list

Where to go for Information about Tsukuba

Alien Times
Tsukuba Wiki
TsukuBlog

Buying and Selling Stuff

Tell and Sell Japan mailing list
Freecycle mailing list (only for free things)

I just received another e-mail from the Skylark Crime Prevention Mail service that I mentioned in my previous posts.

Southern and Western parts of Ibaraki has extremely high rate of auto thefts, and 3 cars/trucks have been stolen in Tsukuba City just between yesterday and this morning!

About 80% of auto thefts in the entire Ibaraki Prefecture occur in Tsukuba, Tsuchiura, Chikusei, Joso, Bando and Koga Cities. Commercial vehicles such as trucks are often targeted lately, but we should always be extra cautious.

Tsukuba Bus Terminal Building Closed!
- The landmark building of Tsukuba that watched the city grow ends its history

The Tsukuba Center Bus Terminal will be barrier-free and will become a more user-friendly bus terminal in March of 2010. The current bus terminal building ended its operation, and will be demolished soon. All the businesses in that building have relocated.

■ Kanto Railway Co. (Kanto Tetsudo) will set up a temporary ticket office in the current bus terminal site during the construction, so users can still purchase tickets at the bus terminal. Kanto Tetsudo said that the loading zones will change as the construction of the site moves on. Please allow enough time for “wandering around” the bus terminal once the construction begins.

For more information, contact
Kanto Tetsudo Tsukuba Center Bus Terminal Office at 029-852-5666,
or visit their website: http://www.kantetsu.co.jp/

■ Academic Newtown Community Cable Service (ACCS), an internet service provider and Tsukuba’s only cable TV station has moved to a new location. Its office is now in the Tsukuba Toshi Saisei Kikou Building which is located between Ooshimizu Park and Tsukuba Chuo Police Station. ACCS has also set up an information counter on the second floor of K’s Denki near LaLa Garden, which is probably more customer-friendly than its old location since we don’t have to worry about parking.

I also want to take this opportunity to encourage ACCS users/viewers to send their “wish lists” to ACCS. ACCS conducts a survey every once in a while to check which programs are popular or what kind of programs are in demand.

Academic new town Community Cable Service ( ACCS)
1-2-1 Takezono, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki,
Phone: 029-852-6111, Fax: 029-858-0220, E-mail: accs@accs.or.jp
http://www.accs.or.jp/english/index.html (English),
http://www.accs.or.jp/index.shtml (Japanese)

■ The meeting for the local residents regarding this construction will be held in the conference room of ARS Hall on July 11, Friday from 7PM. For more information, visit the city webpage: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/13/2730/002731.html

[This article was originally written for the July issue of the Alien Times which came out last week.]

Related post:
Have you picked up The Alien Times lately?

One thing I really like about Tsukuba is the fact that very few people are originally from here. It has its drawbacks, because it means that the traditional culture of the area is a bit hard to spot (unlike in some parts of Japan where traditions have been passed down for hundreds of years and couldn’t be ignored if you tried), but there is also one, very big advantage. During the big Japanese holidays, like the New Year’s holidays and Obon (in August), everyone leaves Tsukuba and it becomes quiet and relaxing. I’m sure it drives merchants crazy, because they all want to have crowded stores during the holidays, but it always makes me feel like I have been given a free trip to somewhere quiet and un-bustling, without ever leaving my home. I guess for thrill seekers, this transformation is exactly what is wrong with our suburban city, but for people like me who seek a quieter, less complicated life, it is a wonderful gift.

Compared to other places in this mountainous and densely populated archipelago, Tsukuba offers plenty of open space. One surprising feature for me when I first arrived was the abundance of open fields of grass, lawns not fenced off, which tempted me to take off my shoes and run, play fetch with my dog, have a picnic or a nap.

If you have or have given into the same urges you might want to think twice before indulging or re-indulging. This is because these enticing plots of green (or gold in winter) are not meant for your recreation. They are actually agricultural fields belonging to local farmers and the grass is an important cash crop (Tsukuba City is the number 1 grass producer in the country). Thus, by walking or running on the turf you might be damaging the goods and subsequently cutting into the farmers earnings (unlike the US, however, nobody will threaten you with a shotgun).

Even if you don’t give a hoot about the farmers, you might want to know that these fields are chock-full of powerful chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Many Japanese families with such fields around their houses don’t drink water from their wells and I’ve also heard it said that dogs have been sickened by daily walks on these lawns.

Turf lawn growing has a long history in Tsukuba. Before and during the war, farmers grew the grass which was used for airstrips and runways. After the war, turf has been used for river embankments, parks, and sport fields. The business really took off with the boom in golf-course construction in the 1980s. The golden days of the golf clubs has long passed, but there is still a demand (though quite reduced) for lawn put into private homes, sport facilities and parks. Tsukuba City still produces 50 percent of the crop and remains the number one producer.

The Union of Turf Grass Growers in Tsukuba has announced that it has developed 3 new varieties of turf-grass: Tsukuba-Hime, Tsukuba-Kagayaki and Tsukuba-Taro, all which have been designed for resistance to disease and hardiness to cold and other climatic problems which have made life for other species difficult.

You can see farmers seeding grass fields in March and April, and maintenance being carried out throughout the year. Harvesting happens whenever grass is needed somewhere.

So, next time you pass by an enticing open field, even if there is no sign posted, you might want to KEEP OFF THE GRASS!

If you are planning on taking your friends or families on a tour of Tsukuba this Fall, please take note of the following temporary closing dates.

From Tsukuba Science Tour website:

Tsukuba Research Gallery
September 15, Saturday
Geological Museum*
September 29, Saturday
October 7, Sunday
Science Square Tsukuba
October 7, Sunday
The Science Museum of Map and Survey
October 27, Saturday
October 28, Sunday

Please also note that Tsukuba Science Tour’s
bus schedule changed on September 1:
http://www.i-step.org/tour/bustour/index.htm

* Geological Museum is a new addition to The Alien Times distribution points. You can pick up a copy of The Alien Times from the museum’s flyer rack by the water fountain.

It sure would be nice if we could all work together to build a comprehensive online ENGLISH map of places to find in Tsukuba! I don’t know if this will help us work towards that goal, but I have started Google Map of Tsukuba that we can at least try to use for TsukuBlog posts.

View Larger Map

This application seems a bit buggy yet, but perhaps it will improve in the future.

One problem that we face in this adventure is that Google Maps of Japan are in Japanese. And when you look up Japanese addresses in English in Google Map, you just get garbage. (Try to search for “Tsukuba” and see where in the world you end up. Not anywhere near this city! If you type it in Japanese (つくば), though, you will get better results.) Diddlefinger can help in this regard by letting you look up Japanese addresses in English, however that site does not let you label local places of interest.

If anyone else has ideas of how we could make a comprehensive and useful map of Tsukuba online, please let us know in the comments.

BBC Radio came to Tsukuba in November to interview various researchers and residents of the city.

The show is available online until March 27 at the following link.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/discovery.shtml

If you are interested in hearing the show after that date, please contact us and we can arrange to put the mp3 file on our server.

There have been some discussions on the TAIRA mailing list about learning how to get along with the people in our communities. One person commented that it is very important to “make the rounds” when you first arrive and introduce yourself to all of your neighbours. It is customary to bring a small gift, such as a hand towel or some soap. The gift does not have to be anything special — the thought is more important than the actual item.

This discussion made me reflect on my own experiences coming to Japan. In retrospect, I think that I was extremely well-prepared, although nothing can really prepare you fully for living in a different culture.

When I first came to Japan, I came as an English language teacher on the JET Programme. I was selected as a participant on this programme from Toronto, and the Consulate-General of Japan in Toronto was responsible for helping future “JETs” prepare for their new life in Japan. The consulate organized at weekend-long seminar that was run by former JETs and some Japan specialists. They talked to us “newbies” about working in schools, what to do with our leisure time, how to learn Japanese, what kinds of foods we will eat, how to get along with our Japanese colleagues, and lots of other topics. We also had casual evening activities where we could speak to the former JETs one-on-one to get a personal account of their experiences.

In addition to that, before I left for Japan, I received a telephone call from the teacher that I would be replacing. She called me a couple of times, sent me letters, and left lots of notes in the apartment and at my desk at work, so I was able to get a really good sense of how to go about living in my apartment and working at the school with her input.

When I finally arrived in Japan, I was taken to Shinjuku for another orientation in Tokyo. More than 1000 new JETs arrived from a great number of countries around the world over a two-day period, and we all were given rooms in three hotels in Shinjuku. We had two or three days of seminars on living in Japan, teaching in Japanese schools. learning Japanese, integrating into the community, etc. This orientation also gave us a chance to meet lots of other foreign people who would be living all over Japan, so it gave us a kind of support network for when we had trouble.

After the Tokyo orientation, I was taken up to Fukushima and brought to my new town. My boss was in charge of five JETs, so he and some of his colleagues held another orientation for us on the day after we arrived. We were told about our jobs and what our responsibilities would be. We were also given booklets full of information about who to contact when we had difficulties, etc.

After a couple of weeks in my new town, I went to Fukushima City, the capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, for yet ANOTHER orientation. I was given even more details about various topics (teaching, working, living, learning), and some things started to make a lot more sense because I had by then spent some time in my new apartment and had made the trip to my new school a few times. This orientation also put me in touch with about 100 other JETs from around the prefecture who could act as a support network for me when I needed help.

Quite a lot of orientations! At the time, I kind of felt “over-oriented” and somewhat perturbed that I couldn’t just be allowed to live and work in my town without having to attend a million seminars about it. However, in retrospect, I realize that I learned a great deal at these orientations and the fact that I attended so many of them helped me to make sense of my life in Japan.

I am not saying that I didn’t have problems when I first arrived. Of course I did. But I would definitely say that I had a good sense of how to go about solving my problems, and a very wide and varied network to turn to when things became too much for me to handle on my own.

Talking to my friends in Tsukuba, I realize that the vast majority of people here were not “oriented” to the same extent that I was, and I think that that has an effect on how people cope with their lives here. Students at the universities, for example, often come here without ever having spoken to someone who has attended their university in the past. To my knowledge, researchers are not usually given special seminars on how to manage their lives in Tsukuba before or after they arrive. And English teachers who work in Tsukuba are usually not a part of the JET program (the city of Tsukuba hires its English teachers privately, not through the JET program), so they too could benefit from some background information about living and working here.

I would like to propose that we find a way to offer some kind of one-day seminar (in April?) to people who arrive in Tsukuba without sufficient information for leading their lives here. We could ask some people from the international community in Tsukuba to speak on various topics of interest to newcomers. I think it would be a good idea to organize it as a co-operative effort involving Tsukuba City Hall, the universities, and the research institutes, perhaps holding it either at one of the universities or — if at all possible — at the International Congress Center or somewhere like that. (For now we could start small, holding it at Tsukuba Information Center, or one of the research institutes, or JISTEC or somewhere like that.) We could try to make it possible for researchers and teachers to attend the seminar as a part of their duties, so they wouldn’t be expected to use their vacation time.

The advantages of having this seminar would go beyond helping individual people get used to their lives in Tsukuba. The seminar could act as a focal point in our community, and serve as a place where we all come together once a year to meet and welcome newcomers and get to know the other members of our community. It has often been noted that Tsukuba has a lot of foreigners, but that students hang out with other students, researchers with researchers, and teachers with teachers. I think we also have a habit of hanging out with people from our own countries. There are a lot of foreigners here, but we don’t really know each other very well. I believe that it would strengthen our community a great deal if we could break down those lines and get to know each other better.

In addition, by allowing us to create a stronger network for ourselves, the seminar should decrease the amount of pressure placed on the people whose job it is to support us (our academic advisors, host researchers, bosses, etc). Holding this kind of seminar will allow us to “help us help ourselves”.

The basic propos