TsukuBlog

I left Tsukuba for the weekend and on the way back I snapped a picture of the scene outside Akihabara station at (a hair past) 5pm.

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!

Guess what and where this is.
No, this isn’t just a typical murky pond in Japan.

Can you guess what that black stuff that’s floating in the pond is?

Nope, not rotten leaves or twigs.

They are tadpoles!

There were thousands of them, and they were swimming like a school of fish! This pond is located inside the Tsukuba Botanical Garden, and the pics were taken last weekend.

I posted a piece titled “Hello Kitty-shaped vending machine in Moriya” in April, and I finally got a chance to take a picture last week.

Sorry, it was dark and I was in a hurry! Besides, I took this photopgraph from my cell-phone, so the image quality is not that good to begin with.

I just came back from a trip to Africa. I had a wonderful time and met lots of interesting people. One thing that I thought was interesting was that there were many cars in Africa that had clearly been imported used from Japan. I guess that Japanese people (and businesses) tend to get rid of their cars after owning them for about ten years because the shaken (compulsory inspection) gets more and more expensive as the car ages. However, the cars are usually still in reasonable shape after that amount of time and, with a few tune-ups, can still look forward to a few more years on the road. With regular cars, it is impossible to tell whether they were imported from Japan used or whether they were bought from a Japanese dealer in Africa. With business cars, though, it is rather easy to tell as the name of the business is rarely erased from the side of the car.

I saw all kinds of trucks that had Japanese writing on the side — trucks that used to belong to nursery schools, nursing homes, swimming schools, etc. I was very surprised, however, to happen upon a truck that belonged to a company in Tsukuba (Interior Igarashi) while I was in Zambia. I am tempted to call up this company to let them know about the free advertising they are getting in southern Africa!

Tsukuba Sunset, Mt. Fuji
Originally uploaded by dimaks.

Sajid is the first to take me up on my request to send photos to share with the Tsukuba community. Here is one of his photos showing a gorgeous sunset with Mt. Fuji just visible in the background. Click the photo (or this link) to see a bigger image.

Have a look at the rest of Sajid’s photos on Flickr.

Here are some photos that were taken on Mt. Tsukuba by Heng Juen.

Sharing some photos I took during our summer seminar in Yamanakako, Yamanashi, Japan on August 7-10, 2007.

Flower shots: (click to enlarge)

View more photos

I think this collection by Mori gives a good sense of what the University of Tsukuba campus looks like.

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!!!

Merry Christmas from Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan!

I went to see the Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai (Sumida River Fireworks Festival) yesterday with some friends. It was really great! I’ve already made a metal note to choose a nicer spot to sit in next year. While my purpose was to watch the spectacular fireworks display, I couldn’t help but do some people watching as well. I hope you guys will like these pictures. cheers!

girls in yukatas waiting for their ice cream

modern day coolie trying to convince customers for a ride

couple sharing a smile while waiting for the fireworks display

i just think that this is sooo… cool. i was riding my bicycle in the university one lonely day when i chanced upon this amateur rock band performing near the pond. there were only about 11 people (including myself) in the audience but the band gave it their all, sweating under the noonday heat and belting out song after song. i was just as impressed with the set-up which even had amps, and a sound control booth.

it was a nice break from the monotony of summer. (^__^)

When our readers send in photos or links to their photo albums, we like to use those photos to decorate the blog. In February, we used a photo by Tim Boyle of the plum blossoms on Mt. Tsukuba.

This month, we are using an image provided by Sajid of Mt. Fuji as seen from Tsukuba.

If you have photos or photo albums of Tsukuba that you would like to contribute to the blog, please contact us.

The fall colours are quite dazzling today. Here is a picture from the University of Tsukuba campus.

I think the picture actually makes the campus look more impressive than it is.

I thought it might be fun to have a “Where in Tsukuba?” challenge on Tsukublog, but I think the photo that I want to use for the first challenge might be too hard.

Does anywhere know where this is in Tsukuba?

Also, if you have a photo that you would like to add as a “Where in Tsukuba?” challenge, or one that you would like to show the Tsukuba community, please forward it to one of our contributors.