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.

A preschool called Matsubokkuri Hoikuen will hold its annual summer bazaar in Namiki today. There will be a lot of children’s clothes, women’s clothes, household items, swimwear, and I hear there are some food and some activities for kids as well.

Bazaar location: Namiki Kinrin Park
http://map.livedoor.com/map/?ZM=10&MAP=E140.8.43.9N36.3.42.8&SZ=740%2C450
Time: 11:00AM to 1:00PM
Parking: Use the parking lot on the east side of this park
*Do not park in the Namiki Shopping Center’s parking lots.*

Get there early!

I checked out the Umezono House yesterday for the first time since last summer. There are always some brand new clothes, plates, and other whatnots, but you don’t see a big, brand new Doraemon talking alarm clock there that often. I don’t think you can get it for 800yen anywhere else, so please visit the Umezono House next week if you want to take a look at this Doraemon. It was quite big.

Other “unusual” findings are a black elementary school bag (probably the same one I saw last summer), a karate uniform, bicycles and tricycles, and brand new frames for commendation certificate.

If you are going to stay in Japan for a short period of time and are planning to visit local secondhand shops, please look into the Umezono House first. It may not have a lot of stuff, but please remember that this shop is for a good cause ;-)

Asian Friendship Association’s information in Japanese
http://www.tsukuba-swc.or.jp/circle/ajia-yujyo-kai.html
The Umezono House’s new store hours http://blog.alientimes.org/2006/07/the-umezono-houses-new-store-hours/

* Exhibit *
The 22nd Ibaraki Artifact Exhibit (茨城県郷土工芸品展) will be held again at Tsukuba Seibu from August 10 to 15. Please also see my post titled, “Ibaraki Artifact Exhibit at Seibu” from last year for reference.

Selected artifacts from all over Ibaraki will be on display/sale, and you’ll have chances to talk to craftspeople and watch them work on their handiwork. Please see “popular attraction” page on Ibaraki Travel Information website (English). All the artifacts on this page, except Kagami Crystal, will be coming to Seibu this weekend. This year, there will be free tea ceremonies that you can participate in every 30minutes between 11am and 6pm on Sunday.

There will be lots of sightseeing brochures and flyers that you can pick up, so if you are trying to decide where to go & what to do this fall, don’t forget to stop by at the tourist information table.

* Books! Books! Books! *
What’s exciting is that Libro’s new and used book fair will also be held on the same floor during this exhibit this year! They usually have a good selection of English and other foreign language books and some videos, so I think it’s worth a look if you are not in a hurry.

Does Tsukuba need another gigantic shopping mall? We already have Tsukuba Center (Q’t, Creo, Seibu, Jusco), Lala Garden, Gran Stage, and all sorts of stores in Sakura and on Route 354. However, the answer to this question, in some people’s minds anyway, seems to be a resounding YES.

The Tsukuba Shopping Center Project is bringing a new, as yet unnamed, mall to Tsukuba that is going to be 145,000m2, making it the largest shopping center in the northern Kanto region. It is going to be just north of Kenkyu Gakuen Station (on the west end of Kita Odori), making this quiet area of Tsukuba a rather bustling hub of activity. It will have stores, a movie theatre complex, a game center, and even community facilities in its 3 storey (plus parking levels) building. The parking areas will be able to hold 4150 cars and 1500 bicycles. They are expecting 12,000,000 people to visit this mall per year. The mall is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2008. Click on the link to see an image of what the completed mall might look like.

Though you can find tropical/specialty fruits at UNAGI-YA fruits market in Takezono (near Terashima drugstore and Kasumi), I just wanted to inform you of some passionfruit on sale now (100yen each…they just starting selling them today and will continue until the inventory runs out, I think - they look really beautiful with shiny firm purple/red skin!) at Yao-kane supermarket.  If you want to go, hurry and go now because inventory often changes.  I was also thrilled to find white asparagus there recently.

That particular shop is a typical friendly local supermarket selling mostly regional produce at prices often lower than typical major supermarkets.   The seafood there is QUITE fresh (my housewife friends all praised the quality of the seafood there) and the man behind the counter is happy to clean the fish for you.  Special fish at the moment: saba (mackerel) and sama (saury)…saury is best eaten salted and grilled while mackerel is really tasty simmered in sweet miso sauce and ginger!  Assorted sashimi fish packs  are reasonable and fresh there too.

How to find the place: Go SOUTH on NISHI-odori…turn right (West) on the Andersen Bakery/Doho Park road…and you can see the supermarket just one block down.  The place is easy to miss but often you can see tons of cars parked along both sides of the street, mostly customers!

UPDATE: I was told that “tonari no yasai” shop (along Nishi-odori…near Onogawa area and the Coco’s around there) also sells passionfruit.  Apparently someone is growing passionfruit in Tsukuba these days, hoping it will spark a demand for it. 

INFO: Passionfruit is tasty when cut open and eaten as is…though it is INCREDIBLY sour.  Many people choose to open it up, put the insides of the fruit into a glass, mix it up with some water and sugar for a tasty passionfruit juice cocktail.  Orange juice can be used instead of sugar, too.

Masuda grocery store in the Namiki Shopping Center has marked down many of their goods today. I went there around 6pm after work, and a lot of shelves were already empty. I think the store is open until 9pm today if you want to hunt for real bargains. Cashier told me yesterday that the store will be open until Sunday but it may close early if it runs out of things to sell, so it’s possible that tomorrow will be the last day of business before its reopening.

Related article:
Namiki Shopping Center Getting Ready For Its Reopening

A nice way to say “thank you” to a woman is to give her some flowers. If you want to say “thank you” to Anna Hamakoji, however, you might want to buy some flowers FROM her instead.

Anna is a 33-year resident of the Tsukuba area who has a long history of helping people in the community. Her family has recently opened a new flower shop, called Blomster Anna, in the Sengen area of Tsukuba. Anna is from Sweden and “blomster” means “flower shop” in Swedish.

The shop is in a unique building that has a tree through the middle of the awning roof. In addition to flowers and potted plants, the store includes a Swedish corner where Anna displays some of her family’s Swedish paraphernalia. Some of it is for sale and some is just for show. There is also a table in the Swedish corner where you can get a drink and a free cookie or chocolate from Sweden.

The shop has a wide selection of bouquets and potted plants that would make a perfect Mother’s Day gift. You can have a look at their Mother’s Day flyer on the shop’s website.

Blomster Anna is located just off Higashi Odori, behind the red and yellow Chinrai ramen shop in Sengen, one block south of Minami Odori (map). Stop by sometime and say hi to Anna!

A new store opened across from Ninomiya House on Nishi Odori on November 23. It is called “Casolea” and apparently it specializes in “organic cotton items”. Casolea means “house of light” and the concept is that the store wants to bathe its visitors in light and warmth. Their products include clothing for women and infants, items for interior decorating, and other household goods.

The store is located at Ninomiya 1-1-10 and it is open from 10am to 7pm. It is closed on Wednesdays.

Here is Casolea’s website and the phone number is 029-861-7752.

Costco is open until 8PM on weekends and on holidays starting today. I went to their website just to be sure, and yes, they are open from 10:00 to 20:00 everyday now! I don’t know if the new business hours will bring more people or even out the crowd, but hopefully this will bring order to chaos on weekends.

Fastest way to get there is by train. Take TX train from Tsukuba, and switch to JR Musashino Line at Minami Nagareyama Station. Makuhari Station is only about 30minutes from MinamiNagareyama. It takes about 1 hour and 15minutes, and costs 1250yen each way. The buses are leaving from Makuhari Station to Costco and other stores every 10-20minutes, and costs 100yen per ride.

Costco Makuhari
related article: A new costco store scheduled to open in Saitama

As a resident of Tsukuba for more than four years now, I have always wondered about where I can find various ingredients for making home like recipes. As a Romanian, I was used to usually having Feta-style cheese and bread as staple foods and for a few good years now I have come to like dark or whole wheat bread. So, here are some of the little discoveries I have made during my quest for such bread.

One thing is the difference between the types of bread people eat. In my home country, we do not usually use eggs, milk and sugar for making the bread used to accompany daily meals. The only ingredients used are flour, water, yeast and salt. This in view of Australians (the source of my information, although I am assuming this might apply to others coming from an English speaking background) is called sour-dough type bread. So, when I was looking for a place selling bread, this is what I wanted and not the dessert breads or anything usually sold in bakeries in Japan.

Recently I was recommended a shop that has a variety of German-style breads and delivers to your home door. You can access it here (http://www.kornblume.co.jp/scb/shop/shop.cgi). There are ten varieties of bread and in my experience the bread ordered was really dense and of a fairly big size. What I ordered were the Weizen-Sesambrot, the Fruchtebrot, and the Heildelberger Mischbrot. The Fruchtebrot has some cinnamon and the flavour was a bit too strong for my taste. Yet, the other two were the perfect bread to make sandwiches with ham, cheese, lettuce, olives… and so on.

The delivered package.

Since the delivery costs 600 yen, I preferred to order more and then cut the breads and put them in the freezer. The order needs to be placed for a specific date and time, no earlier than two days from the time of ordering. Since it is a perishable product, I do not know what happens if you miss the delivery time, but I liked the care the shop took in wrapping the bread - adapted obviously to the Japanese market. The website has no English version and shop seems to be a small one that originated in Mie prefecture, although it seems to have a branch in Tokyo. More information on the shop and maps with locations can be found at: http://www.kornblume.co.jp/alia/shopdata.htm.

Recently I did not feel like ordering from “afar”, so I have been buying bread from Brotzeit and the shop on the first floor of Seibu in Tsukuba. Each of these has whole-wheat bread or rye bread and the one in Tsukuba centre has a fruit bread that I really like. In the case of deserts-like breads or sandwiches my favourite is Le Pan Gris Gris. Both Brotzeit and Le Pan Gris Gris are family businesses and have been previously discussed about on Tsukublog or Alien Times (for more about them, see the links below).

Perhaps you are not so desperate as me to have a particular kind of bread, but if you are, I hope this helps.

Links to articles related to bread:
http://blog.alientimes.org/2008/02/germany-bakery-in-tsukuba-backerei-brotzeit/
http://www.alientimes.org/Main/BakeryReviewGrisGris

Or here is a link discussing the Brotzeit backery.
http://tsukuba.wikia.com/wiki/Backerei_Brotzeit

They sure do use a lot of plastic bags here in Japan, eh?

When I first came here, I didn’t know how to say “I don’t need a bag”, so I ended up with a bag collection that threatened to take over my whole apartment. In case some of you are in the same position, here are some expressions that might help.

袋は要らないです。
fukuro wa iranai desu
I don’t need a bag.

そのままでいいです。
sono mama de ii desu
It’s fine like that (implying that I don’t need a bag).

I usually use the “it’s fine” one, but some shop clerks don’t get the hint (the bakery staff are THE WORST) and still try to stick me with the plastic, so I am then forced to use the more direct “I don’t need a bag” one. When I first started using these expressions (a few years ago), the clerk would almost invariably start to fight with me about it. Recently, awareness of the garbage problem has become more prevalent, so I can usually get away without having to pick up my things and run out of the store while being chased by well-meaning (although not environmentally-friendly) clerks. I have, however, had some problems with people not accepting the very nice bag that I bring with me when I shop and insisting on putting a little piece of tape on everything that I buy. I don’t mind that sort of thing if I am only buying one or two things, but I nearly had a fit the other day when I did a “big shop” at Gran Stage (buying about 25 items) and one of the clerks actually stood there and put little pieces of tape on EVERY SINGLE ITEM before I picked the item up and put it inside my bag and zipped up the bag. Unnecessary.

Anyway, the reason for today’s post is not to talk about tape and being chased out of stores. No, today I want to tell you about the Ecoshop System and how we should all make a concerted effort to back this system.

Tsukuba City has started accrediting certain shops in the city as Ecoshops. Ecoshops are stores that are making efforts to decrease their environmental loads by engaging in activities such as…

1. Making an effort to sell products that are environmentally friendly (e.g. product that carry the “ecomark”, products made from recycled materials, products sold in returnable containers).

2. Dedicating a spot in the store to ecological products.

3. Simplifying or eradicating their wrapping practices.

4. Promoting the use of shopping baskets and the customers’ use of their own bags.

5. Repairing their own products.

6. Using recycled paper for their publicity.

7. Recycling empty cans.

8. Recycling empty bottles.

9. Recycling empty milk cartons.

10. Recycling produce trays.

11. Recycling plastic (PET) bottles.

12. Making other efforts to reduce the amount of garbage they produce.

As of January 2007, the following stores have been accredited as Ecoshops.

Ishimaru (Tsukuba)
Kasumi (Asse, Technopark Sakura, Gakuen, Tsukuba, Oho, Umezono, Grand Plechef, Midorino Eki Mae)
Gakuseifuku no Uchiya (Inarimae, Takezono)
Masuda (Kukizaki)
山三硝子 (I’m not sure how to read this… can anyone help?)
Uematsu Information Service
Numaya

For this scheme to succeed, the public has to start modifying its behaviour by choosing to do business with stores like this, so I hope the foreign community can put its buying power behind this idea.

Vivian’s post “local produce” reminded me to write about another farmer’s market in Tsukuba. This one is held on Saturday mornings in Namiki Kinrin Park (並木近隣公園/Namiki Kinrin Koen), which is across the street from Namiki Kouminkan (community hall) by the Namiki Shopping Center. It’s officially from 10am to Noon, but the farmers get there before 9am.

This farmer’s market has a long history, and the farmers told me that they’ve started selling their veggies at this park when Tsukuba was still a quiet country town!

Like the farmer’s market Vivian mentioned, you can buy various vegetables for very low prices, so it gets extremely crowded especially when vegetable price hikes occur in “regular market.” A couple of years ago, price of lettuce went up to 300-500yen each, but you could still get it for 100yen at this farmer’s market. Naturally, a lot of people found out about it through word of mouth, and simple task like buying veggies became such a hassle!

What I like about this farmer’s market is that the vegetables sold there are organic. The farmers explained to me that they occasionally have to use minimum amount of agrochemicals, however. You’ll notice wormholes and some other damages to the vegetables you buy from these farmers, but you’ll know why their veggies don’t look as good as the ones you see in the grocery stores.

The sign in the picture is asking the customers to bring the　生ごみ(nama-gomi or raw garbage), so the farmers can use them as fertilizers. I always keep banana peels and other “veggie-gomi” in a different bag when I know I’ll be visiting this farmer’s market. I’m a “eco-minded” person, and since I grew up watching farmers in my neighborhood use raw garbage as fertilizers, it just makes me happy to bring veggie garbage to this place.

The farmers will be there every week, even during major holidays like Golden Week holidays and Obon holidays, and even during severe weather (I’m not kidding about this!).

A fish shop’s truck also comes every Saturday mornings, and you can have the fish cut in the way you like. I hear that you can buy the kind of fish you don’t see often in the grocery stores.

The first few times you go back to your home country, it is really easy to think of things to bring back to your family as gifts: lacquerware, sake and sake paraphernalia, kimonos, etc. After a few trips, though, you start to have trouble coming up with new ideas. One idea you might want to consider is puzzles. There is an extremely well-stocked puzzle shop in Tsuchiura (in the Joyful Honda complex) that has just the thing.

As you can see in the above image, you can get puzzles that have kanji on them, but you can also get “Japanese-y” art images and various other kinds of puzzles that would make great gifts.

The store’s name is “Toy’s House Joy”, but they only have a few toys now. Apparently they used to sell a wider variety of toys, but they are now concentrating mainly on puzzles. You can see what the store looks like below.

There may be people who are going back to their home countries during the spring vacation.

If you are one of those people, you might want to think about getting some Japanese style tiny goods for souvenirs for 100 yen!

There is a Japanese style goods section named “和風空間(Wafu-Kukan (=Japanese style space))” in the 100yen shop called the DAISO on the basement floor in DayzTown. They sell many kinds of tiny goods there, such as ukiyoe postcards, paper fans, rice bowls, tea cups, lucky-cat dolls, store curtains, etc. I believe the prices are reasonable and these items should be a nice conversation starter with your family and friends in your home country.

Have a nice stay at home!

Did you know there’s a Hello Kitty-shaped vending machine in Moriya City? It’s the first of its kind in Japan, and it officially debuted in Moriya on April 1.

This Hello Kitty vending machine is located in the Moriya Service Area on Joban Express Way. I know this is the service area we, Tsukuba area residents, tend to skip since it’s the first service area from Tsukuba, but I think this vending machine is a good reason to stop there! I know some of you, TsukuBlog readers would LOVE to take pictures of this vending machine to be added to the list of “weird things I saw in Japan”(I would!) ;-> Please note that Hello Kitty-shaped vending machine is only at the service area on the up lane(上り) side.

If you don’t have a plan of going there anytime soon, I’ll tell you a secret: you can actually see the backside of this vending machine from the Tsukuba Express train(yes, I’ve seen it, and it was easy to spot the famous kitten)!

Visit NEXCO East Japan’s Press Release to see what this vending machine looks like.

In my travels, I happened upon a shop called Kaiser. At first I thought it might be a bakery, but it turns out that it sells homemade sausages and ham.

It is located near the Coco’s on Nishi Odori closest to Route 354. The address is Inarimae 26-1. Go straight down Nishi Odori and turn left at the Coco’s across from the National Institute of Environmental Studies. Turn right immediately after the intersection (right beside Coco’s) and follow that road for a bit. You will see the store on your left.

I went with a friend and she bought some ham, so I will try to remember to ask her if it was good. I just thought I should let all of you know about this unique store.

If you’ve been in Ibaraki for long time (or is ‘too long’ more appropriate?), and have ran out of the souvenir/gift ideas, how about an “Ibaraki” tumbler to take home this holiday season? I learned about this tumbler on this Japanese blog: 茨城団塊ジュニアのブログ～いばらきR30～ (Ibaraki Dankai Junior’s Blog- Ibaraki R30)

The “Ibaraki” tumbler has Ibaraki written on it in Roman alphabet with the images of Japanese plum, samurais, Japanese architecture and crests of hollyhock.

Please visit Ibaraki Dankai Junior’s Blog- Ibaraki R30 to see bigger images of this tumbler.

For those who don’t know;
- Japanese plum (梅/ume) is Ibaraki’s prefectural tree
- Crests of hollyhock or “triple hollyhock”(葵の御紋/aoi-no gomon) is the family crest of Tokugawa Shogun family. One of the Tokugawa Shoguns, Tokugawa Mitsukuni is a very loved character who governed Mito Han (水戸藩). The author of Ibaraki R30 thinks the Japanese architecture on the tumbler is the image based on one of the buildings in Kairakuen in Mito City. The image of samurais is more than likely the Mitkokomon (Tokugawa Mitsukuni) and his followings.

References:
Mon (crest) from Wikipedia
Tokugawa Mitsukuni from Wikipedia
Kairakuen

Ibaraki tumblers are available at Star Bucks Coffee stores in Ibaraki.

If you are looking for kitchen supplies in Tsukuba, you might want to try Oritomo. Here is what Christine found when she was in the market for some martini glasses.

Oritomo is a kitchen supply store mainly catering to businesses. I went to look for martini glasses, but stayed for the meat grinders and cotton candy makers! They have a large variety of baking necessities such as molds and pans of every size as well as a number of small appliances. I found some good quality knives and an excellent array of other tableware. The prices are a bit higher than what you would pay at, say, JUSCO, but the items are clearly of a much higher quality.

Here are the directions Jon gave me that got me there easily:
Go south on Higashi towards Joyful Honda. At the intersection of Higashi and Noda-sen (354) there is a beige pedestrian bridge. Continue south on Higashi to the next light. Turn right (Alpen sports will be on your left and an Eneos gas stand on your right) and go to the next light. Oritomo will be diagonally to your left.

I even received a gift of 12 rolls of bathroom tissue for having visited the shop!

(picture taken on March 17, Saturday.)

just a quick note….

Namiki Shopping Center’s grand opening is 9am today. The other shops opened on March 16, Friday, but Masuda grocery store’s opening today will be the SC’s grand opening. New Masuda store is big and looks great!

Namiki Shopping Center in Namiki has been under construction since last summer, but it’s almost ready for its reopening! This picture was taken last night, and as you can see, the 2nd floor of the shopping center is already open. A music school and a dentist have started operating in the new location.

Masuda grocery store will be closed from March 12, Mon. to 31st, Sat. while it prepares for the reopening, so it’ll be a bit inconvenient for those who live in Namiki, Umezono, Onan area.

I don’t know if Namiki Shopping Center has announced its reopening date, but it looks like the scheduled completion date is March 13, Tuesday. However, the signs outside of the shopping center only says “mid-March.” We’ll see….

Hooray! A new COSTCO store is scheduled to open in Iruma City, Saitama next Spring! I don’t know how convenient it is to go there from Tsukuba, but at least we can hope that the new store will ease the congestion at the Makuhari location.

*** COSTCO Iruma ****

- 3169 Miyadera* Aza, Iruma City, Saitama
(near Kenou Express Highway Iruma Exit)
*I’m not sure if this is the right way to read “宮寺”
**It is Miyadera, not Miyatera. Thanks Shaney!

- This Costco will be in the outlet mall tentatively called “Iruma Outlet Park”

- The construction will start at the end of March this year, and is scheduled to be done next Spring

***************************************

Here’s an article about it : NIKKEI NET　(Japanese), and
Mitsui Fudosan’s Press release

***************** UPDATE ********************
The opening of the Costco Iruma has been moved forward,
and it is now scheduled to open this Fall!

I wrote about a new Costco store that’s being built in Saitama in February, but if you can’t wait until this Fall, then how about the new Costco store in Kawasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture?

It’s scheduled to open on July 12 according to their website, but from what I see from tons of blogs out there, it looks like the opening of the Kawasaki store is June 28 (oh, boy! exactly one week from today!).

Related post:
A new COSTCO store scheduled to open in Saitama

Just like the title says, a new Ikea store is set to open on November 19. It is in Shin-Misato, which is a lot closer to Tsukuba than Makuhari, where those with a craving for Swedish furniture have had to go until now. You can get to the new store by taking the Tsukuba Express to Minami Nagareyama, switching to the Musashino line and travelling two stops to Shin-Misato. The trip from Tsukuba (950 yen) should take between 39 and 48 minutes, depending on whether you catch an express or a semi-express train on the Tx line. The store is right near Shin-Misato station, so you should be able to spot it right away.

Ikea Shin Misato
Address: Saitama Prefecture, Misato City, Shin Misato LaLa City 2-2-2
Tel: 048-950-0300
Open: 10:00 - 21:00
Closed: January 1

If you are not sure what kinds of things you can buy at Ikea, have a look at their Japanese commercials online.

(A new Costco is set to open in the same area in 2009.)

A new store opened up next to Hitachi no Ushiku station (on the Joban Line) today. It is called “Seiyu” and it is open 24 hours a day. It includes a large-scale grocery store that sells food, clothing, and certain household goods. On the second floor of the building, there is a bookstore, a Mujirushi (Muji) store, a pet good store, and some other shops.

I haven’t been there myself yet, so I can’t give you any more details, but if you are the kind of person who likes to shop around for discounts and you are not afraid of crowds, you might want to drop by on the weekend for some Grand Opening Sales. They have some special “bait” items, like laptop computers on sale for about 50,000 yen on Saturday from 9am. Of course, they only have a limited number of these computers (I believe about 16 in total), so if you really want one, you will have to line up rather early.

A new Wonder Goo store opened on Kita Odori (the street that Kenkyu Gakuen Station is on) last week (October 25 to be precise). It sells books, DVDs, CDs, and some stationery supplies and also includes a Tsutaya where you can rent movies and music. I went there today to see what it was like and found that like other Wonder Goo stores, it was EXCEEDINGLY NOISY. I think that if I had to work there, I would go crazy after about 3 minutes. I can’t spend any time browsing there because the overlapping sounds from all the sections make me want to rip my ears off. (And I can’t possibly be the only one who thinks that.)

I was disappointed to learn that they have no foreign books at all (other than foreign books that have been translated into Japanese). I think we should all go into the store and ask them for a foreign books section. Even the Tsutaya has a few shelves of English books, so it’s not unprecedented.

In a country where you are given a plastic bag for your box of popcorn when you are at the movie theatre (which I witnessed at the Cineplex last night), I thought there was no hope of seeing the use of plastic shopping bags decrease in my lifetime. I am an enthusiastic user of cloth shopping bags (I have two in my purse at all times and several in the trunk of my car), but I haven’t seen much proof that the “my bag” trend has caught on in Japan in a major way.

All this may start to change on September 1, 2008, at least in Tsukuba, where several major supermarkets will stop giving out free plastic bags with purchases. So far, eleven companies representing 25 individual stores have signed on for this program. The stores will sell plastic bags, but the profits will either go towards point card systems or environmental projects.

Here is a list of participating stores.

A Coop (Katsuragi)
Fresh Yaokane
JA Tsukuba (Yatabe)
Jusco (Tsukuba)
Kadoya (Toyosato, Yatabe)
Kasumi (Tsukuba, Gakuen, Oho, Tsukuba Asse, Technopark Sakura, Umezono, Gran Plechef, Midorino Ekimae)
Marche
Marumo (Gakuen)
Masuda (Kukizaki, Namiki)
New Quick (Tsukuba)
Torisen (Kenkyu Gakuen)
Uomatsu (City Market Uomatsu, Kamigo, Takamihara)
Yamauchi (Takezono, Matsushiro)

Source: Tsukuba City Hall Website

Why they called this area Sakura Technopark is easy to surmise. Tsukuba being an artificial city, it’s easy to guess that some bland bureaucrat decades ago probably conjured the idea of planting sakura trees along the inner streets and then calling the area as such. But why “technopark”? From what it looks now, it is anything but a technology park.

But who cares, really? What used to be vast rice paddies and vegetable fields is now the veritable playground of bargain hunters, gourmets and gourmands, film and music buffs, and even the downright bored and homesick gaikokujin.

For those who work or study at the University of Tsukuba, Sakura Technopark is the ideal residence, especially for those who do not have cars like me. There’s a bus service that takes you to Tsukuba Center once or twice per hour, even on weekends. And when it comes to finding basic necessities and cheap stuff, you’re definitely in the right…location, location, location…

For bargain hunters, it is paradise! First stop is the newly opened “BookOff”. (Why it’s called “BookOff” is beyond my imagination.) Here you can find English books for 105 yen and movie soundtracks for 250 yen. I was there two days ago and found a Gameboy Color for 500 yen. (I didn’t buy it because I already have one, so it’s probably still there. Hurry!) My wife also often buys 105-yen cookbooks and uses them to make magic in our kitchen. Last month, I bought a 2-inch-thick dictionary for just 300 yen. If you happen to go there in the evenings at around 7:30 p.m. and find someone chasing an 18-month-old toddler running between the shelves, that’s probably me.

Then there’s Kawachi, the big dry goods store a few meters away. If you want to buy drinks at wholesale prices, Kawachi’s definitely the right place. See those 150-yen beverages in vending machines? They’re just 98 yen at Kawachi. And those “expensive” wines at Yamaya? They’re probably half the price in Kawachi. And if you’re a beer guzzler, try to compare prices between Kawachi and Terashima, which is just a few meters across the street from Kawachi. My favorite Yebisu All Malt, which is a whopping 257 yen in convenience stores, is just 200 yen in Terashima. (Nope, it’s not secondhand.)

Terashima also has a 100-yen section, which is probably one of the least known secrets in Sakura Technopark. I say “least known” because each time I go there, there are just too few people milling around. But if you need good quality yet inexpensive school supplies and party paraphernalia and you don’t want to bother going to Dayz Town’s Daiso, then Terashima is the right place. Fond of those night sticks that you see in war movies or in Disneyland? They’re at Terashima for a mind-boggling price of 100 yen.

Speaking about 100 yen, Seria is the 100-yen store of Sakura Technopark. Looking at their merchandise, you wouldn’t believe that they’re that cheap: large porcelain plates, stainless steel bowls, coated skillets and casseroles, and even well-made calculators and gadgets. Certainly, Daiso is bigger and has a wider array of choices, but if you live nearby and need only a few stuff, then why go far?

If you’re looking for household goods such as futons, beds, shelves, tables, chairs and the like, Sakura Technopark has Athena with prices comparable to those of Joyful Honda. But here’s one secret that you should know: Athena has a perfume section and the prices are….need I say more?

For gourmets and gourmands, the restaurant lineup of Sakura Technopark is tops. There are Chinese, Italian, French, and Japanese restaurants as well as a few fastfood outlets. Probably the most expensive yet also very delicious resto in Sakura is Lyon de Lyon, which is a French restaurant. I’ve tried their lunch and dinner courses and have proven that the French (or those who cook French cuisine) really take their work very seriously.

Saizeriya (Italian) and Bamiyan (Chinese) are the favorite hangouts of students and gaikokujins because of their affordable prices. The food is also good although I prefer Bamiyan more than Saizeriya. And of course, there’s the drink bar where the adventurous can experiment on mixing drinks and seeing how far their stomachs can hold out. A classier Chinese resto in Sakura is Oolong and their food is really, really good! (I’m drooling just thinking about it…) Too bad few people know this because when we go there, there aren’t too many customers.

Lovers of Japanese food have choices aplenty at Sakura Technopark. There are noodle and sushi restaurants, and there’s Samurai. Samurai used to be very good but when we went there in May this year to celebrate my sister’s birthday, the waiter said that they are under new management and have thus changed the menu. We had a tonkatsu lunch for 1000 yen, which was really expensive considering that a similar tonkatsu is just 380 yen at the university.

Sakura has two major supermarkets, Kasumi and Marumo, which offer really affordable food and lots of choices. Kasumi is open 24 hours! (Amazing, isn’t it?) Here’s another secret that you should know. The best time to come to Kasumi is at around 8 – 8:30 p.m. That’s when they halve the prices of sushi, sashimi, and bento boxes. (That’s also when you would sometimes see my toddler running around the place (again!), much to his mother’s chagrin.)

Of course, there’s a McDonalds and Mister Donut in Sakura for the cheapest burgers and the best coffee, respectively. But if you’re tired of those stuff, then one fastfood joint that we really patronize is the Curry House which you can easily find near 7-Eleven. Here, curry dishes are considered an art form.

This blog post has probably become too long so I’ll end here. In my next post, I’ll talk about what Sakura Technopark has to offer to film and music buffs as well as more of its secrets and surprises.

I live here, by the way, right in the heart of Sakura (my house is just a few meters away from Kasumi), so you can take my word about my world.

Videos of recent blockbusters – 100 yen!

If that doesn’t catch your attention, I don’t know what would. But you better hurry because they’re slowly disappearing as you read this. Which shop? Read further.

In this second installment of the Sakura Technopark series, allow me to introduce to you some of the other hidden surprises of our small, “secret” world. First stop is Big Ben, the 24-h, 2-storey video, CD and DVD rental shop that stands between Bamiyan and Saizeriya. That’s where you’ll find those secondhand 100-yen VHS tapes I mentioned earlier. The more recent ones (less than a year old) are slightly more expensive but not more than 500 yen. If you’re a film collector willing to put up with older technology or if you still have a VHS player at home, then instead of just renting, the film that you get is yours forever, to watch as often as you like or at your own leisure.

Music buffs can also explore Big Ben’s second floor where you’ll find the recent concerts and/or MTVs of your favorite artists. Last time I checked, there were Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston, and Marlyn Manson DVDs on the shelf. The best way to determine if your favorite artist’s DVD is there is to visit Big Ben yourself. Don’t worry, there’s no entrance fee.

When is the best time to drop by? Big Ben halves rental prices every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. On these days, the usually half-empty store would be abuzz with people and lines to the rental counter would be very long. The queues begin lengthening at 4 or 4:30 p.m. and continue until evening. If there’s a film that you’re particularly interested in, come early.

Kawachi also offers VHS tapes of recent hits for a fixed price of 500 yen. Once every few months, they would actually be swamped with tapes and DVDs of classics, all for 500 yen. It just happens unexpectedly so it would help to drop by once in a while if you’re a serious film collector. Last time, I purchased a few Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne DVDs at 500 yen just to get the kick of watching (and owning!) excellent movies that were made even before I was born.

Between Kawachi and Kasumi stands a large bookstore that is not only filled with books and magazines but also CDs and DVDs. The prices are not much different from those of Ishimaru or Seibu but if you think these places are too far, then why bother going there? Also, as far as magazines are concerned, I think they have one of the most complete collections. They even sell some of those Linux magazines that are published only for top-class computer geeks.

And if you need a nice hair cut, salons galore dot Sakura Technopark. Prices vary from the “1,000-yen cut” near the bookstore I mentioned earlier to high-end salons that charge 5,000 yen upwards. I strongly discourage you though from going to the “1,000-yen cut” unless you’re the masochistic type. My wife tried there once out of curiosity and went home with the left side of her hair longer than the right side. To make her hair look even, she would have to bend her head slightly to the right. Yeah, she can do it for a few seconds but definitely not all day. She went back fuming and the “hair stylist” corrected it for free. The problem with that shop is that they want to cut your hair as quickly as possible, even if it would eventually mean you’ll have to disappear from Earth for a week or two.

I always to go “Summers”; the friendly guy there has been cutting my hair since I returned to Tsukuba almost two years back. “Summers” is in the building right in front of the bookstore and beside the “Digital Conbini”, which is also my favorite photo printing shop (quality there is absolutely top class). A cut plus shampoo at “Summers” is only 2000 yen if you go there in the mornings. You have to make reservations first, however. His schedule is starting to become very tight, esp. on weekends, as word about him continues to spread. You can’t go wrong if you go to “Summers” and you can take my word for it.

There’s one restaurant, by the way, that I forgot to mention in my first post, and that’s Chaya, the resto adjacent to Takarabune, which is at the entrance of Sakura Technopark. If you work or study at the university and have an hour to spare for a high-end lunch at low-end prices, then Chaya is the best place. The day’s specialty is only 880 yen while the more fancy courses go for 1200 to 1380 yen, inclusive of salad, soup and dessert. We had lunch there last Friday and the food was really very good.

And speaking about good food, particularly yakiniku, there’s Gyukaku further ahead. Outside this restaurant there’s a sign in Japanese that can be roughly translated as “We would like to be the number one restaurant for you.” As far as yakiniku is concerned, I think they have succeeded. In the evenings, esp. on weekends, they’re always full.

This post is becoming quite long again so I’ll pause here momentarily. By the way, Big Ben’s next half-price rental day is on July 26 so don’t forget to mark your calendars. In the meantime, you might want to check out those 100-yen VHS tapes before they completely disappear.

Or should I say, “Before I make them completely disappear”?

The old town of Hojo (北条), in the northern part of Tsukuba city, is best explored on foot. Its maddeningly narrow streets, which could be used as a set for historical dramas (jidai geki), often have treacherous rain gutters on one or each side, and were clearly not designed for automobile traffic. A person on bicycle is also at a disadvantage as he or she might be going too fast and miss some hidden treasure, which would only be discovered by a walker.

Recently, I spent a perfect spring day revisiting some familiar temples and shrines and seeking out
new (for me) sacred stones and other curiosities. A whole day of exploring certainly took a toll on my not-very-young-anymore feet, especially in the cheap pair of thongs I was wearing. But every day, it seems, there are little coincidences and miracles.

As the sun started to set I was walking down Hojo’s rusting main commercial street when I came across another Tsukuba surprise, the Sutou Shoestore and master shoe-fitter Keiko Sutou, who has shoemaking and fitting qualifications from both Japan and Germany. She provides custom fitted shoes
carefully made to fit each of your precious feet.

When the Sutou family first opened their shop back in Taisho 13 (1924) only the mayor and the local lawyer wore western style shoes. Thus, the store had a major impact on the area’s culture as their shoes gradually replaced wooden clogs (geta), straw sandals (zori) and the still common bare foot.

Ms. Sutou took over the shop from her mother, now an indefatiguable world traveller in her 80s. She took over the reins with enthusiasm and has been studying and getting various qualifications in order to keep providing customers with more comfortable and healthier shoes. Last year she passed the schuh geseller (shoe craftsman) examination in Germany.

Let me quickly tell you about the fitting process at Sutou’s. First there is a short consultation (she speaks fluent English). Then your feet are checked and footprints taken.

After you select the design of shoe you would like, it takes 1-2 weeks for the shoes to be made.

You then come in for a fitting… and your new shoes are ready.

It’s not just an old-wives tale that bad fitting shoes are bad for your health. Now I’m rambling the backroads more vigorously than ever. It’s certainly worth a special trip out to Hojo for these shoes, which would be much more costly in Tokyo.

A pair of custom fitted shoes at Sutou’s start at around 30,000 Yen.

ストウ (sutou)
Address: Hojo 7, Tsukuba

Tel: 029 867 2201

Open 9am-5:30pm
Closed Thursdays

If you or your kids miss drinking milk with Sipahhs, you can now get them at most Mos Burger shops in Japan though the sales are for limited time only through late September. Sipahhs are on sale for 50yen each, and you can choose from strawberry, banana and chocolate flavors.

Mos Burger
Mos Burger News June 22, 2007 (Sipahh)
Sipahh

Mos Burger shops in Tsukuba area are:
- Mos Burger Factory on the first floor of Q’t
- Tsukuba Chuo Shop
- Tsukuba Minami Shop
- Tsuchiura Gakuen Shop
- Tsuchiura Manabe Shop
- Ushiku Shop
- Moriya Shop near Moriya Station

It seems that there is no way of avoiding surprises in Japan. Even in a rush to get back home from Tokyo, trying to keep cool by walking within the air-conditioned confines of the chic, new Mid-Town shopping center, I virtually bumped into a group of journalists and photographers. I’m still not exactly sure what the press had gathered for, but when I glanced up out of curiosity, my eyes fixed upon a sight they had never seen before: cube-shaped and pyramid-shaped watermelons, on sale for about 20,000 yen each.

If you have cash to burn, you might want to try out one of these curiosities, or even better, send them to your boss, teacher or in-laws as a mid-summer gift! Check the Sun Fruits shop info. By the way, the
regular shaped melons you see in the photo are BLACK inside. Sound appetizing?