TsukuBlog

External air conditioning units are being stolen in Tsukuba. Units that are not visible from the road are especially vulnerable to theft. If your air conditioner gets stolen, please report it to the police. If you buy another unit, be sure to protect it with anti-theft equipment.

Source: September 1, 2007 Issue of Tsukuba City Hall Newsletter

If you are approached by a police officer, insist on seeing photo identification.

At around 6:30pm on February 26, a man claiming to be a police officer approached a 19 year-old university student in the Amakubo area of Tsukuba and told her that she was riding a stolen bicycle. He showed her a business card that included his name and a police symbol and told her that she would have to come with him in his vehicle. He then put her in the back seat of his van.

He drove for about 13 km to a convenience store in the Numata area of Tsukuba and entered the store. While he was in the store, the student called her father. He told her to go somewhere where there were other people around, so she went inside the store and asked the man if he was really a police officer. When she asked him that, he got back in the car and drove away. The woman was not injured.

The suspect in this case is around 40 years old, about 170cm tall, average build, and short black hair. He was wearing a beige down jacket and black or blue trousers. He was driving a grey van. Call 110 if you have any information about this case.

A similar incident occurred in the late evening on the 25. A different woman was approached by a man who claimed to be a police officer in the Sakura area of Tsukuba.

Source: Yomiuri Shinbun and the Ibaraki Prefectural Police Hibari-kun Crime Prevention Mailing List (ひばりくん防犯メール).

Yes, I said hunters. The hunting season in Ibaraki and all the other prefectures besides Hokkaido began on November 15. You might be surprised to know that quite a lot of areas in southern Ibaraki are in the hunting zones. Did you know that a young man who was hiking alone on the mountain trail in the beautiful Okutama in Tokyo was accidentally shot by a hunter on November 25? The hunter shot this poor guy in the arm because he saw “bushes move” and thought it was a wild boar. The injury this hiker suffered was not life threatening but will take 3 weeks to recover.

This is the season a lot of people go to mountains or remote areas for hiking or for “秋の味覚” (aki-no mikaku, or autumn flavors), so the chances of ordinary people encountering hunters are high. Furthermore, according to the announcement made by Tsukuba Chuo Police Station on ACCS TV, Tsukuba’s cable TV company, there are some hunters who hunt (or more like end up hunting) in the non-hunting zones. A lot of hunters are coming to southern Ibaraki area from Tokyo and other surrounding prefectures, so it could just be that some of them are not familiar with the locale (or they are just selfish and irresponsible!). The Ibaraki Police are patrolling from the ground and the sky looking for those hunters who don’t follow the guidelines, but do call the police or the city and inquire about the hunter(s)/hunting zone if you happen to see a hunter(s) or happen to hear gunshots and are concerned. Apparently, the number of phone calls police stations receive from concerned citizens in southern Ibaraki are on the increase. The hunting/non-hunting zones change every year, and it looks like that the speed of re-evaluating non-hunting zones is not catching up with the speed of rapid residential area growth in Tsukuba and rest of southern Ibaraki.

So how do you find out if you are living anywhere near the hunting zones? I called the Tsukuba Chuo Police Station about this, and I was told that you can visit any 駐在所(chuuzaisho, or police substation) or Tsukuba Chuo Police Station to take a look at the map of this year’s hunting/non-hunting zones. The map is in Japanese, but the each zone is colored in different color and comes with the English explanation such as “wildlife preservation zone.” The map is generally called ハンターマップ(hunter map), so for instance, you can visit a nearby police station and say “ハンターマップを見たいのですが…(hunter map wo mitai no desuga…/I’d like see the hunter map).” If you are not sure if the koban you visit has the map or not, you can say “ハンターマップは置いてありますか？(hunter map ha oite arimasuka?/ Is there a hunter map (at this koban/police station)?)

The Ibaraki Prefecture’s Southern Ibaraki Office distributes the maps to area police stations every year, and the police stations in Tsukuba don’t have any extras to sell or give out. Southern Ibaraki Office is located in Tsuchiura, but you will have to visit the 行政情報センター(gyousei jouhou center, or government information center) on the third floor of Ibaraki Prefectural Government Building, a.k.a. kenchou) in Mito City if you want to get your own copy. The Southern Ibaraki Office only provides the map to the licensed hunters who register there. The map is 290yen, and you can purchase it by mail order if you don’t have the time to go to Mito. However, it may take a while for you to receive the map since you’ll have to mail the payment (plus postage) via registered mail and the Gyousei Jouhou Center has to “process” it which could take some time. Gyousei Jouhou Center is only open on weekdays, so it looks like the easiest way for us to check the hunting zones in our area is to visit a nearby police station after all.

Hunting season in Ibaraki and most of other prefectures ends on February 15 every year. Some prefectures with extensive bird or animal damages extend the end of the hunting season, for instance, to March or April.

The Japan Meteorological Agency introduced an “Earthquake Early Warning System” (kinkyuu jishin sokuhou, 緊急地震速報) in 2007. The early warning will only give you a few seconds’ notice that an earthquake is about to happen, but that could be enough time to get yourself to a safe place.

Recently, a few people have fallen victim to a scam involving the Earthquake Early Warning System. There are basically three patterns to this scam:

1. The scammer will go to an apartment building and ask one of the residents to open the door to the building because he is from the Meteorological Agency and he has come to install equipment for the Earthquake Early Warning System.

2. The scammer will claim to be doing a survey about the Earthquake Early Warning System and get people to divulge their personal information (name, address, etc.).

3. The scammer will tell people that he is selling equipment for the Earthquake Warning System on behalf of the local disaster response center (or the manager of the building) and that the residents are required to have it installed so they have to buy it.

The Meteorological Agency will not send anyone to your door regarding the Earthquake Early Warning System, and you are not obliged to buy any equipment or complete any surveys about this system. Please do not fall victim to this scam.

For more information about the Earthquake Early Warning System, please see this TsukuBlog article.

According to the Skylark Crime Prevention E-mail I received yesterday, seven Toyota Hi-Aces have been stolen in southern and western Ibaraki areas just this month! The police suspect that Hi-Ace and similar-typed cars will more than likely be targeted again, and they are warning the car owners to be on alert.

To see what Toyota HIACE looks like, click here

Related post:
Receive Area Crime Reports on Your Computer or Cellphone

As RrFish mentioned yesterday, car thefts are on the rise in Tsukuba. I also received a notice from the Tsukuba Central Police Station warning people that car thefts are on the rise in Tsukuba, particularly since August of this year. Tsukuba now has the most car thefts in the region. They are advising people to be careful and not to let their guard down in thinking “it couldn’t happen to me”.

Here are some facts about car theft in Tsukuba.

1. The number of car thefts that occurred up to September 2007 has already surpassed the number that occurred in all of 2006, and is close to the total number for 2005.

2. The area that is policed by Tsukuba Central Police Station contains 5.5% of the population of Ibaraki. However, in 2005, this area had 10% of the car thefts in the prefecture. In 2006, it had 7.6%, and so far in 2007, it has had 11.2% of the car thefts.

3. What kinds are cars are being stolen?

Passenger vehicles: 87 (48.3%)
Commercial vehicles: 62 (34.4%)
Construction vehicles: 11 (6.1%)
Other specialized vehicles: 6 (3.3%)
Other: 14

4. Can’t I just lock my car?

Most of the cars that were stolen were locked.

No key in ignition: 128 (71.1%)
Key in ignition: 52 (28.9%)

Locked: 176 (97.8%)
Unlocked: 4 (2.8%)

5. Is it worse in the daytime or night?

Most of the thefts happened at night (160 incidents).

6. Where did these thefts happen?

Apartment, house parking lots: 32 (17.8%)
Office parking lots: 28 (15.6%)
Store parking lots (including convenience stores, bars, supermarkets, pachinko): 26 (27%)
Construction sites: 28 (15.6%)
Public facility parking lots (hospitals, city hall, gymnasiums, children’s halls): 7 (3.9%)

What can I do?

You car can get stolen even if you lock the door and take the key out of the ignition, but it is still a good idea to do both.

Think about installing anti-theft devices such as immobilizers and GPS． They are expensive, but effective.

Think of ways to protect your parking lot. You may not be able to park your car in a garage with a door, but install lighting and think about installing a camera.

Pay attention to what is going on around you. Our eyes and ears are the best protection against theft.

According to the Ibaraki Shimbun, a chemical terrorism drill based on 国民保護法(Civil Protection Law) will be held inside TX Tsukuba Station and other locations tomorrow. This drill is targeted to 420 people in 109 agencies such as the Ibaraki Prefectural Government, Ibaraki Police and Self-Defense Forces. So even though the article doesn’t mention the time of the drill, it will probably be held after the operating hours.

The drill tomorrow will be carried out under the assumption that sarin (deadly gas) was dispersed. Agents from four fire department head quarters within Ibaraki will go through rescue/evacuation/decontamination drills in chemical protection suits, and Ibaraki Prefectural government staff members will go through information gathering/ judging situation drills without being told what “the scenario of drills” are.

This kind of terrorism drill is the second one to be held in Ibaraki. The first one was held at the Nulcear Off-site Center in Tokai Village and a couple of other locations last year.

For more on Civil Protection Law, visit:
Cabinet Secretariat Civil Protection Portal Site

The Tsukuba Fire Department has installed a system that will show your location if you place a call to 119 from a cellphone or IP phone. This system will come onboard as of October 1 and will only work with third
generation cellphones (ones that can handle high speed data) and IP phones with numbers that do not start with 050. If you are calling from a cellphone, the Fire Station will be given information about your current
position. If your cellphone can handle GPS data, the positioning data will be more precise. If you are calling from an IP phone, your registered information (name and address) will be shown.

In some cases, it will not be possible to get information that is good enough for the Fire Department to locate you, so please answer the questions of the emergency operators if they ask for more information. If you dial
184 before dialing 119, you can block your position information from being shown. However, if the Fire Department determines that the situation requires knowledge of your position, they can extract such information even if you dial 184.

Source: Tsukuba City Hall Website

Disaster Drill in Tsukuba & Emergency Management and Training Center Tour

Participants Wanted!

The scene is a big earthquake in Tsukuba. We will be training to escape from the scene. There are 23 kinds of training, and we will observe them. There will be exhibitions of disaster information and disaster prevention measures.

Date: Monday, September 17, 2007
Tme: 8:30 to 15:00
Meeting and Returning Point: Parking Lot at Tsukuba Capio
Participants: Foreign residents of Tsukuba (limited to 20 people)
Fee: FREE

Interpreting available (Please ask for details.)

The event will be held even if it rains. If there is a storm, call the Tsukuba International Association or telephone service 0180-99-2984 (Japanese only)

Program
1. Disaster Drill in Tsukuba Okamura (in Techno Park Toyosato)
2. Emergency Management and Training Center in the Ibaraki South Area

Call or send an e-mail to the Tsukuba International Association
TEL 029-869-7675 or inter[AT]tsukubacity.or.jp

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced yesterday that it has created web pages on earthquake early warning system in English.

I think it’s very important for you to read “Earthquake Early Warning Starting 1 October 2007(pdf)“ if you haven’t heard about this new warning system. The new system may only give you only three seconds for example, but those three seconds may save your life!

From JMA website:

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is providing residents in Japan with Earthquake Early Warnings, new prompt earthquake alerts to be issued immediately after the occurrence of earthquakes, in order to secure time to protect yourself before strong tremors arrive.
Earthquake Early Warning will be provided through several means such as TV and radio from 1 October 2007.

- What is the Earthquake Early Warning (or “緊急地震速報 (Kinkyu Jishin Sokuho)” in Japanese)?

- Examples of Response to an Earthquake Early Warning

- Limitations of the Earthquake Early Warning

- About Earthquake Early Warning(pdf)

Or please visit their “Earthquake Early Warning” page.

Recently, some criminals have been trying to get people to reveal their bank details, including their PIN codes. The criminal will call a person and identify himself as a police officer from the Shinagawa Police Department named “Tanaka” or something like that. He will then say that a man he recently arrested was carrying your bankbook (or that someone has been trying to withdraw money from your bank account) and that you should cancel your bank account immediately. He then tells you to contact the Japanese Bankers Association (which does exist) and gives you a fake number (050-5532-5014). If you call that number, you may be asked to reveal your bank account number and your PIN code.

If you need to close your account for any reason, please do so at the bank and not through any phone number that you have been given. Also, do not reveal your PIN code to anyone.

Source: Hibari-kun Crime Prevention Mail dated July 8, 2008.

Also, car-related thefts are on the rise. If you have a valuable car, do something to protect it, like using an immobiliser. Also, never leave anything valuable in your car, and put any bags that you might be carrying in the trunk when you leave your car so they do not attract attention.

If you would like to get advice about crime prevention and safety in Tsukuba, call the hotline for police counselling (in Japanese). Dial “#9110″ from a landline phone, cellphone, or PHS phone, or call 029-301-9110 from an IP phone or a pulse phone (the opposite of a touch tone phone).

As of the end of November, we have had 164 traffic-related fatalities in Ibaraki in 2007. This is 53 less than at the same time last year. Ibaraki is the eleventh worst prefecture for traffic deaths.

The characteristics of the accidents included:
Speeding (28 people, 4 more than last year)
Elderly people (69 people, 15 less than last year)
People not wearing seatbelts (36 people, 25 less than last year)
Drunk driving (9 people, 16 less than last year)

A lot of the accidents take place between 6pm and 8pm. Be sure to put your lights on before it gets dark and don’t be afraid to use your high beams when there are no other cars around.

According to the Ibaraki police, eight elderly people were killed in accidents in November. Six of the eight people were walking or on a bicycle. The accidents often happened at intersections and during the evening hours.

If you are walking or cycling, wear bright clothing and some sort of reflective device. (You can buy a reflective sash at the 100 yen shop in Dayz Town.) Make sure your bicycle has a light, and always stop first and check carefully before preceding through an intersection.

If you are driving, be sure to turn your lights on early (before the sun sets), and lower your speeds. Keep a special eye out for pedestrians and cyclists.

Police stations around Tsukuba have reported an increase in bicycle and motorcycle theft. To keep your bikes and motorcycles safe, you should park them in a managed area (and not on the road or sidewalk), use a lock in addition to the one that is built-in, and register them so that they can be identified as belonging to you if they are found.

Here are the statistics for vehicle theft in 2006 from the two police stations and the top five satellite offices in Tsukuba.

Tsukuba Central Police Station

Car thefts = 150 (down 26)
Motorcycle thefts = 235 (up 63)
Bicycle thefts = 693 (up 107)

Tsukuba North Police Station

Car thefts = 43 (up 7)
Motorcycle thefts = 7 (no change)
Bicycle thefts = 47 (up 3)

Tsukuba Station Koban

Car thefts = 13 (up 4)
Motorcycle thefts = 89 (up 27)
Bicycle thefts = 401 (up 75)

Matsushiro Koban

Car thefts = 30 (up 3)
Motorcycle thefts = 83 (up 8)
Bicycle thefts = 232 (up 19)

Tateno Office

Car thefts = 12 (down 15)
Motorcycle thefts = 14 (up 5)
Bicycle thefts = 40 (up 6)

Yatabe Koban

Car thefts = 28 (up 5)
Motorcycle thefts = 6 (up 2)
Bicycle thefts = 31 (up 3)

Namiki Koban

Car thefts = 9 (down 14)
Motorcycle thefts = 8 (no change)
Bicycle thefts = 42 (down 5)

Be sure to park your car in a well-lit area if you have to make a stop at a supermarket or other such store late at night! Someone I know had a close call with two foreign-looking men (maybe of Southeast Asian descent) in a dark parking lot. They watched her get out of her car and followed her in…at the time they pretended to buy things (all sorts of things men usually would not buy) - sensing something wrong, she made a mad dash back to her car and left. This was in a supermarket located in southern Tsukuba.

Watch out for yourselves, ladies. Don’t go out alone late at night unless you really have to. If you really must go out, at least pick a busy place like the Kasumi supermarket or the Terashima drugstore in Takezono.

There are a lot of reports of people stealing things from cars in Ibaraki lately. On May 29th, between midnight and 11am, there were 23 cases of “theft of items from cars” reported in Tsuchiura and Ishioka. The cars were mainly parked at supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants.

Even if you are only leaving your car for a minute, please ensure that it is locked. Also, try not to leave things of value visible inside your car.

Ibaraki Prefectural Police warns people about the recent chain e-mails

I didn’t think this was relevant to the foreign community since the contents of those chain e-mails are in Japanese, but I now feel that I should warn Tsuku Blog readers about those e-mails because they have prompted many people in the area to inquire about them in the local message boards, mailing lists, and even in my work message board.

The “basic” content of the recent chain e-mails is something like this:

A small child who went to the rest room alone at XX (a name of the actual grocery store or other shopping facilities) in XX (the name of the actual city), XX (prefecture name) was assaulted (in some versions, sexually assaulted). Do not let small children use public bathrooms alone. This is important, so please forward this message to many people immediately.

There are many variations, but one variation I’ve seen went on to say that a toddler ended up having her uterus removed due to the injuries she received. I’ve seen other sick contents, but all I can say is that some sick people are enjoying their literary talent too much, I guess.

I totally agree about not letting small kids go use the public rest rooms alone, but the recent chain e-mails just went too far. Area police stations are flooded with inquiries regarding those chain e-mails. However, the Ibaraki Prefectural Police states on its website that it has not received any report on the cases mentioned in those chain e-mails, and they are asking anyone who know about that crime (if it ever happened) or the recent chain e-mails to come forward with the information.

According to ひばりくん防犯メール (Skylark Crime Prevention Mail), the similar e-mails went around last year. So now you know!

Since you can never know when an earthquake is going to happen, and since we are living in one of the most seismically active countries, it is important for all of your family members to know what to do when one happens.

Hold a family meeting to discuss what to do in case of an earthquake.

(1) Give each family member a role.

• Make sure one family member is assigned to take care of each child or elderly person in the family.

(2) Identify danger zones.

• Check spots inside and outside your house that might be dangerous.
• Discuss how to make these spots more safe by fixing or strengthening them.

(3) Make an emergency pack.

• Check to make sure that you have all of the important items.
• Periodically check to make sure that the items are still usable and not expired.

(4) Have emergency tools available.

• Identify the locations of the fire extinguishers and first aid kits.
• Make sure your family members know how to use the fire extinguisher and how to give first aid treatment.

(5) Devise a way to communicate with each other.

• Discuss how you will communicate with each other if you are not at home.
• Learn how to use the “Disaster Dial System” (171).

(6) Discuss your escape routes and places to take refuge.

• Locate the areas of refuge in your community. You should choose a number of possibilities around your home.
• Take your family to the areas of refuge so they can see where they are.

Tsukuba has recently seen an increase in incidents involving thieves who sneak into houses while people are sleeping. The thieves steal money and valuable items that are located in places other than the bedroom. (The advice in the City Hall newsletter is to hide your valuables in your bedroom, but I hope that doesn’t encourage the thieves to start poking into people’s bedrooms while they are sleeping!)

Here are some stats to help you decide how best to protect yourself and your possessions.

Point of Entry

Window (other) = 29.7％
Door (other) = 23.3％
Window (living room) = 21.6％
Front door = 14.6％
Balcony door = 8.7％
Other, unknown = 2.0％
Emergency exit = 0.1％

Method of Entry

Unlocked door = 63.2％
Break glass = 26.0％
Other way of opening lock = 3.4％
Other, unknown = 3.2％
Other vandalism = 2.4％
Remove door = 1.1％
Master key = 0.5％
Break lock = 0.2％

(This data is from the Ibaraki Prefectural Police.)

Also, it is important to protect your home when you are not there. Here are some tips to help protect your home.

• Lock your door whenever you leave your house, even if it is only for a short time.
• If you are going to be absent for a certain period of time, inform your neighbours.
• Keep your door locked even when you are at home.
• Make sure that people can’t see inside your house from your entranceway (genkan)
• Make it difficult for people to climb up to the second floor.
• Put two locks on your front door.
• Use locks that are difficult to pick or bypass. (If necessary, ask your landlord to change the lock to a more secure type.)
• Install a guard plate so that your door can’t be pried open.
• Use glass that is difficult to break.
• Add an extra lock to windows.
• Install a light that turns on automatically when someone approaches your house.
• Install a security camera.
• Install a security system.

Whenever there is news of a sizable earthquake anywhere in Japan, I like to send a note to my friends and family back home in Canada to let them know that I am okay. Often the earthquake may be as far away as Hokkaido, but when my family hears “Japan”, they think “Shaney”, so they tend to panic whenever they hear about anything dangerous happening in Japan.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1, struck the north of coast of Ishikawa prefecture just before 10 a.m., according to Japan’s Meteorological Agency. Buildings shook violently for about half a minute.

So, just to let our readers and their families know, the earthquake that hit Ishikawa was only felt as a small rumble in Tsukuba. We are all safe here (as far as I can tell by looking out my window).

Read the full story: Quake in Japan kills 1, injures 40

Did you know that there has been a series of crimes in Tsukuba that made national headlines lately? A 32-year-old man was arrested last week for aggravated assault. This man went to a 20-year-old Tsukuba woman’s residence at night, and begged her to make him her slave. He then tried to grab her through a gap in the chained door when she refused. This man said that he had fallen in love with a 20-year-old woman at first sight about a month prior to this bizarre case.

…OK, guys. Hang in there. Japan’s infamous muggy weather is too much to handle, even for a Japanese guy obviously, but it’s going to get worse. If you are new to Ibaraki or Japan, you might want to note that the season after the rainy season is actually the 暴走族 (bou sou zoku) or motorcycle gang season. Several days ago, some people, possibly high school kids were setting off bottle rockets… at two in the morning! These kinds of troublemakers come out when the weather gets nicer, and they’ve definitely become the unwelcome seasonal tradition of Japan.

On a more serious note, there was also a murder in Tsukuba last week. The owner of a pachinko parlor in Takamihara, which is the area adjacent to Ushiku City, was murdered last Tuesday night. The killer is still on the loose.

What may affect many of TsukuBlog readers is a series of motorcycle thefts in the area. As Shaney wrote in her post “Increase in Bike and Motorcycle Theft in Tsukuba,” bike and motorcycle thefts are on the rise at an alarming rate. Three Namiki residents found their beloved motorcycles stolen last Tuesday morning. Four other motorcycles were stolen in Tsukuba between June 15 and 16. All were large-size motorcycles such as Harley-Davidsons (very popular targets!), and all were safeguarded against theft. The police suspect that a professional motorcycle theft ring(s) is behind these cases. This website, “バイク盗難 情報局 (motorcycle theft information),” is also cautioning all motorcycle owners in Japan about the recent motorcycle theft cases. The website is specifically warning those motorcycle owners who live along/near the following Routes: Route 17, Route 16, Route 14, Route 246, Route 408, Route 125, Route 4, and Route 354. As you know, Routes 408, 125 and 354 go through Tsukuba.

Some of you may already have signed up for this, but the Ibaraki Prefectural Police launched a service last month that informs Ibaraki residents of crimes and crime prevention information by e-mail. The service is called ひばりくん防犯メール(Hibari-kun bouhan mail), or Skylark Crime Prevention Mail. Skylark is the prefectural bird of Ibaraki, by the way. My son’s school handed out letters about this new service a couple of weeks ago, but I was too lazy to sign up. However, the recent motorcycle thefts in Tsukuba got me to sign up for this service because just the thought of a professional theft ring roaming around in my neighborhood made me sick and made me very worried about neighborhood safety.

The registration process is VERY simple. Just send a blank e-mail to add[AT]mail1.police.pref.ibaraki.jp and click on the URL in the message sent back to you. It won’t ask you to enter your residential address. All you need to do is to click and choose the city, then choose which information you’d like to receive. I picked Tsukuba, and selected both “crime prevention information” and “traffic accident information” to be sent to my e-mail account. The only message I’ve received so far since I signed up for this service last week was about a suspicious man in his 50s in Mito who’s been approaching kids. Subscribers will receive traffic accident information, break-in/purse snatcher/bicycle theft reports and announcements from the Ibaraki Prefectural Police. Watch your bikes and motorcycles… and kids!

A female student at Namiki Elementary School was approached by a man yesterday morning when she was on her way to her school. The man came out of his car and asked the girl “Why don’t we go somewhere in my car?” The girl hit (the man) about twice and ran away. The man took off. The man was about 30 years old and was wearing a hat and a medical mask. His car was white van with tinted windows.

This is very alarming, and I think the parents with small children in Tsukuba area, not just in Namiki area should talk to their kids again about what to do when they encounter 不審者(fushin-sha, or suspicious individuals).

Another “fushin-sha” incident occurred in Ushiku City last week. A man grabbed a high school girl’s wrist and dragged her down from her bike. The man was skinny man in his 20s, with short hair. He was in a white (or very light-colored) yellow-plate car (not the van, as far as I know).

You can check the suspicious individual/crime reports on the Ibaraki Prefectural Police website:
http://www.pref.ibaraki.jp/kenkei/topics.htm

Tsukuba City Board of Education also post suspicious individual reports that involved Tsukuba kids, but the site has not been updated for a while:
http://www.tsukuba.ed.jp/modules/wordpress2/

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.

According to an analysis conducted by Associate Prof. Yuki Sakai of Tsukuba University, the seismic wave of Sunday’s earthquake had a frequency cycle of one to two seconds, which causes particularly violent shaking of wooden houses.

[...]

A seismic wave with a cycle of a second, dubbed a killer pulse, caused catastrophic damage in the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. The seismic wave Sunday was the strongest since the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004.

Read the full article: Quakes’ seismic waves worst for wooden buildings

Tsukuba City Hall has published a 144-page document with various statistics related to the city. The document is only available in Japanese, but it is a treasure trove of information about the city.

For example, there is a diagram on page 15 (of the pdf file, page 5 of the paper document) that outlines the history of merges that created the city. I knew that Tsukuba was created out of Toyosato Town, Oho Town, Sakura Village, Yatabe Town, Tsukuba Town, and Kukizaki Town, but I did not know that Toyosato was originally Kamigo Town, which itself was originally Kamigo Village.

Page 25 (page 15 of the paper document) lists statistics on the weather from 1998 to 2007, including annual average temperatures, annual high and low temperatures, annual average humidity, annual average wind speed, annual precipitation, and hours of sunlight. It also lists the monthly amounts of the above variables for 2007.

Page 26 (16), says that the area of Tsukuba is 284 km2 with a population of 206,661 (as of October 1, 2007). The population density is 727.5 people per square kilometer. The average household had 2.5 people. There were 5.7 births per day and 3.5 deaths per day. 37.2 people moved into the city per day, and 30.3 people moved out of the city per day. 3.6 couples got married per day and 1.0 couples got divorced per day. As of October 1, 2007, there were 7154 foreigners living in the city, representing 127 countries.

Page 27 (17):
4388 books borrowed from the library per day
1452 people used community centers per day
1.5 cars per household
19 ambulances sent out per day
0.3 fires per day
4.1 traffic accidents per day
207.5 tonnes of garbage produced per day
177,910 yen of municipal tax paid per person
108.3 city hall staff members per person in Tsukuba (1878 staff members in total)

Page 28 (18) has a chart that puts Tsukuba in perspective in Ibaraki.
4th in Ibaraki for size, but 1st for residential land
2nd in Ibaraki for population
14th for population density
7th for youth population
2nd for working-age population
43rd for senior age population
6th for births
51st for deaths
4th for incomes (3.7 million per person)
21st for number of hospitals per person
3rd for number of medical clinics per person
1st for number of doctors per person
10th for number of nurses per person
4th for number of traffic accidents per person
4th for number of traffic fatalities per person

Page 31 (19): Population
More men than women
Drop in population every March, influx every April
More people in the city in the daytime than the night
Page 48 (36) has a breakdown of the foreign population

Page 51 (38): Industry

Page 72 (57): Land

Page 79 (60): Residential

Page 85 (63): Parks

Page 89 (65): Water and Sewage

Page 93 (67): Security
1489 traffic accidents in 2007, 15 fatalities, 1955 injuries, 6505 instances of damage to property

Page 99 (71): Environment and Sanitation

Page 105 (74): Consumption

Page 108 (76): Welfare and Social Services

Page 116 (81): Education

Page 122 (85): Elections

Page 126 (86): Finance

Page 134 (91): City Hall Employees

The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a weather advisory for southern Ibaraki in connection with Typhoon Fitow, which is expected to reach Japan on Thursday. We may be faced with heavy rain, thunderstorms, and flooding. Please pay close attention to the weather over the next couple of days and if it looks like it is going to start raining, do not venture out until you are certain that it is safe. If you have a bicycle, you might want to lay it down on the ground instead of standing it up, as it may blow over and get bent out of shape or damage other property. (One of my bicycles was completely destroyed by a typhoon a couple of years ago.) Also, if you have pets, you might want to consider keeping them inside.

Keep an eye on the Japan Meteorological Agency website or search Google News for “typhoon” for up-to-date information.

You can watch the chemical terrorism drill that’s being held (right now!) live here:

http://www.tsukuba-ac.jp/kunren/
(click on the writing in blue below the still image to launch the Windows Media Player)

Update:
OK, the terrorism drill is over now, so the link is no longer valid. However, SoftEther Corporation, New Forestar and Tsukuba University will make the recording of today’s web-casting available on the web later.

Related website:
SoftEther Corporation from University of Tsukuba
New Forestar

Watch the live cam image of the intersection directly above the Tsukuba Station here:
http://www.tsukuba-ac.jp/

————-
118
————-

Yep, that’s THE number to call, not 119 (medical emergency/fire) or 110 (police). As with 119 and 110, dialing this number won’t cost you anything.

Dial 118 if you
- are in or witness a maritime emergency
- discover an oil spill
- witness a suspicious vessel
- hear about the smuggling

From the Japan Coast Guard /Marine Ranger’s page, three very important tips to save your life.
1. Wear a life jacket at all times
2. Ensure a way to call for help: buying a waterproof cell phone or a waterproof bag/case for your cell phone is highly recommended
3. Call 118
If you have kids, you might want to watch this movie from 政府広報オンライン (“government publicity online”) with your kids.

Other helpful/related sites:
Japan Coast Guard website (English)
- also available in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian
Ibaraki Coast Guard Office (Japanese)
3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters (Japanese)
- The list of all other regional coast guard HQs