TsukuBlog

Alien Times was featured in an article in the Ibaraki edition of Asahi Shimbun.

英字情報誌２０年・つくば (in Japanese)

The article briefly discusses the history of the Alien Times from its conception in 1987 to the present day situation. The Alien Times website is also mentioned. Perhaps this article will help to raise the profile of the newsletter so that we can continue to receive funding from the Expo Foundation and increase our revenues from advertising.

The article is going to be deleted from the Asahi Shimbun site in two weeks, so here is the text.

英字情報誌２０年・つくば

2007年09月26日

つくば市で発行している月刊の英字情報誌「エイリアン・タイムズ」（Ｔｈｅ　ＡＬＩＥＮ　ＴＩＭＥＳ）が、創刊２０年を迎えた。留学生や外国人研究者らが多く住む地域で、生活情報を得る手段として重宝されてきた。編集長で米国人宣教師ティモシー・ボイルさん（６０）は兵庫県へ移ることになり、今月を最後にバトンタッチする。

ティモシーさんが教会の仕事で同市に移り住んだのは８６年。「当時から万博の影響もあり外国人は多かったが、生活情報を得る手段は『口コミ』くらいだった」。翌年６月、生活に役立つ情報を英語で発信しようと米国人の友人ら４人で情報誌を手作りした。しばらくは作成費用は自腹と寄付。その後は財団法人「つくば科学万博記念財団」がスポンサーとなり、地元企業の広告料と合わせて印刷代などをまかなっている。スタッフは全員ボランティアだ。

同誌はＡ４判で８ページ。内容はイベント紹介や日本語の勉強など多岐にわたっている。寄稿者にはフランスやロシアの出身者がおり、英語以外の記事が載ったことも。千部がＴＸつくば駅構内や筑波大学など市内外の約３０カ所で無料配布されている。今月号のトップでは、飲酒運転への厳罰化が取り上げられている。

２０年で同誌も大きく変わった。０２年には、カナダ人のシェイニー・クロフォードさん（３６）が同誌ホームページを作成。過去の記事も閲覧できるほか、誌面に載らない情報も掲載している。

ティモシーさんは「（読者から）感謝してもらったことが何よりの思い出。優秀なスタッフがいるので何の心配もしていません」。次期編集長の小野三枝子さん（３２）は「ささいな情報でも、不安をもって来日する人たちのために続けていきたい」と話している。

同市によると、市内の外国人登録者は１３１カ国の７０８４人（８月３１日現在）。県内で最も多く、人口の３・４％を占めている。

同誌ウェブサイトはwww.alientimes.orgへ。

The Alien Times site is experiencing some difficulties. I am looking into the problem and hope to have it solved soon. Apologies for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: The site is now back online.

The Alien Times and TsukuBlog websites will be down for scheduled maintenance on Saturday, September 27 from 10am to 2pm.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

As Shaney has mentioned on TAIRA a while ago, Alien Times is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month. Wow!

Did you know that the back issues of Alien Times were handed out during the Tsukuba International Exchange Fair last month? I had a chance to talk to quite a lot of people during the fair, and I was thrilled to find out that almost all non-Japanese speakers I’ve talked to were either Alien Times readers or someone who at least knew Alien Times. That was great considering that some of those people don’t even work or live in Tsukuba! I’ve also met several non-Japanese speaking people who came to the festival to get the information on Tsukuba because they were thinking of moving here, so they were delighted to see a free English-language publication!

A lot of Japanese college, high school and even junior high school kids were also excited to see “free English-language study materials,” so they took the back issues without any hesitation. Quite a lot of them told me that they hardly understand the contents of Alien Times but would still love to read the articles with dictionaries in their hands :)

Some adults, on the other hand, reacted completely different. A couple of Japanese men in their late 40s or in their 50s came to talk to me after staring at a pile of Alien Times for a while. No, they didn’t come at the same time, but they both started the “argument” the same way.

Their argument?

Well…, they both started the conversation with me by saying;
“Do you know the term ‘Alien’ isn’t a very nice way to call a foreigner(s)?”

I politely answered yes and politely told them that the word “alien” also means “foreigner,” so the name Alien Times isn’t inappropriate in a way. Again, those guys reacted to what I have said the same way. They asked me if I knew that the term ‘alien’ is no longer in use at Narita Airport….

(　｀Д´)ﾉ Arrrrrrgh!! you smarty pants!

I knew why both of them were telling me the identical stuff. Actually, I knew what they were going to say before even they opened their mouth because there was a quiz show on TV just a few days before the festival, and one of the quiz questions happened to be about this ‘alien’ issue at the airport. Narita Airport had been using “ALIEN” for the signs above its immigration counters, but had stopped using it after receiving numerous complaints from foreign travelers in 1980s.　Obviously, many people began associating the word “alien” with “space alien” since that popular movie came out in 1979.

I was channel-surfing, and happened to watch just that part of the quiz show, so I had expected that someone would come at me with that argument. Some other adults didn’t try to argue with me, but did ask me that question or give me other negative reaction.

One very important fact those people forgot about was that Alien Times was and is being published by the “aliens” themselves!

Excerpt from “About Us” page of Alien Times:

While some people find the name “Alien Times” to be a bit strange, especially now that we are not referred to as aliens very much anymore, we decided to keep the title of the newsletter as it was in 1987 so that we remember how it all started.

I must’ve caught those men off guard when I told them that the people who are involved in Alien Times are foreigners, but I had to show one guy the back page of Alien Times to show the names of the staff to prove it! Those guys weren’t convinced, that is, they still thought that “I” should change the name even when I told them the brief history of Alien Times, but what I should’ve done from the beginning was to just tell them that I, a Japanese, am not the one who makes Alien Times….

(　｀щ´)ﾉ Grrrrrr!!

In case you are wondering, Japan isn’t the only country that uses “alien” in its official documents. I was once an alien in the United States though I’m sure the usage of ‘alien’ varies from state to state.

I’d also like to clarify that the Japanese word we use for foreigners is 外国人(がいこくじん、gaikoku-jin). 外 means outside, 国 is country, 人 is person, so it simply means “a person from outside of the country.” The word for space alien is エイリアン(alien) or 宇宙人(うちゅうじん、uchuu-jin). 宇宙 means outer space, and since 人 is the letter for person, 宇宙人 means “a person from outer space.” So don’t get upset when you see “alien” written on your document because we don’t think you are an “alien.”

The December 2006 edition of Alien Times is now online.

• Main Page
• Articles Published in December 2006

Alien Times is an English newsletter that has been published in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan since 1987. It has been online at http://www.alientimes.org since 2002. All of our writers and staff are volunteers.

More about Alien Times

I have learned that there are some people who don’t pick up the printed version of the Alien Times because they didn’t know that it was free. There are also many who don’t pick up the printed version because they can read articles online.

Guess what?

We include articles, photographs or images that are exclusive to the printed version every month, and there is a very good reason to pick up this month’s issue!

Find out where you can pick up a copy:
http://www.alientimes.org/Info/Distribution (English)
http://www.alientimes.org/J/Distribution (Japanese)

The Alien Times has launched a new website that can be accessed from your mobile phone. The site is called “The Portable Alien” and it is designed to let you find out information about Tsukuba while you are on-the-go. The address is http://k.alientimes.org. (The “k” stands for “keitai”, which means “portable” in Japanese and is often used to refer to mobile phones.)

The site is divided into a number of directories. The top level directories are:

• Accommodations Directory
• City Hall Directory
• Education Directory
• Emergency Directory
• Food Directory
• Health Directory
• Media Directory
• Miscellaneous Directory
• Recreation Directory
• Research Directory
• Transportation Directory
• Travel Directory

Inside these directories, you will find links to information about various organizations and companies that may be difficult to find when you are not at your computer. For example, in the recreation directory, you can find information about sports facilities and tourist attractions in Tsukuba. In the health directory, you can find lists of clinics divided into their specializations (skin, pediatrics, eyes, etc.). The transportation section currently includes schedules for the Tsukuba-Narita and Tsukuba-Tokyo buses. We eventually hope to include other schedules such as Tsukuba Express, Joban Line, and TsukuBus.

The site is not yet complete, but we decided to make it public so people in the Tsukuba community can test it out and let us know what they think. If there is any information that you would like to see on the site, please let us know. Also, if there is any information that is outdated or needs to be improved, please contact us so we can keep the site up-to-date.

There are two ways to access the site with your cellphone.

1. Open your web browsing software in your mobile phone and enter the address “k.alientimes.org” directly.
2. Use your barcode reader in your cellphone (usually in with the camera settings) to read the following code.

After you have accessed the site once, put it in your list of favourites so you can get to it quickly when you need it in the future.

You can also access the site with your computer. The mobile site is directly accessible by computer, or you can use the interface that has been integrated into the Alien Times website. (The interface was integrated so that searches that are performed on the Alien Times site will now include results from the Portable Alien directories.)

We hope you find this new site useful and we are looking forward to getting your feedback on our efforts!