Please go to the city's Environment Division's page(Japanese) to check for smog information:http://cms.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/040900/

Or go to Ibaraki Prefecture's air pollution monitoring information page(Japanese) for more precise information:
http://www.taiki.pref.ibaraki.jp/index.asp

I don't have any background in science(in fact, anything "scientific" makes my brain cells gasp for air), so please bear with me while I attempt to translate the information from the Ibaraki Prefecture's website.

Photochemical oxidase smog prediction(予報/yohou) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.12ppm,

Photochemical oxidase smog advisory(注意報) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.12ppm, and when the concentration is expected to remain high due to the weather condition

Photochemical oxidase smog alert(警報/keihou) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.24ppm, and when the concentration is expected to remain high due to the weather condition

Photochemical oxidase smog "acute" alert(重大警報/juudai keihou) will be issued when:
- Hourly concentration of photochemical oxidant is expected to be over 0.4ppm, and when the concentration is expected to remain high due to the weather condition

If you work or live in Tokyo, or visit Tokyo often, you might be interested in signing up for this service:
http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/ox/bunpu/smog.htm
The air pollution prediction/advisory/warning in Tokyo will be sent to your computer or cellphone. Unfortunately, this is also all in Japanese.

The sign-up page is here: http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/kinkyu/regist.html
Please note that the registration for this service will be automatically cleared at the end of every fiscal year (the end of March), so you'll need to register your e-mail address again in April.

Another very good site is "そらまめ君/Soramam-kun" or Atmospheric Environmental Regional Observation System.

You can pick the area you want to check the air pollution or weather from their main page like this:
http://soramame.taiki.go.jp/DataMap.php?BlockID=03
and, hallelujah!, there are chemical symbols and English abbreviations on the upper left corner of their website! You can see a particular air pollution type by clicking those buttons.

If you have very sensitive skin, eyes or throat for example, you may have very irritated skin/eyes/throat. In severe cases, some people even develop breathing trouble, severe headache, numbness in limbs, emesis, and disturbance of consciousness when the photochemical smog occurs.

In fact, one of my co-workers who has very sensitive eyes left work early to visit a doctor yesterday. My eyes were also irritated so bad that I was using eye drops all afternoon. I didn't know about the advisory for the smog, so I thought I was just tired or stared at my computer too long(!).

This smog warning is like the ozone alert, and I really think people should try to stay indoor while the advisory or warning is in effect. Did you know that the public schools do shut their windows and doors when the advisory or warning is issued no matter how hot the weather is? Please be careful when you go outside, especially if you take your small children out for a stroll. If they start to whine, it's possible that something other than the heat might be bothering them!

Did you know you can call 3 friends for half-price with AU? Ask for the application form at any keitai shop (we applied at Dayz Town), write your name and details, and nominate 3 of your friends for the discount. It will cost 315 yen per month for the discount, but if you call your friends alot it works out cheaper in the long run! See the AU English website.

Kate

1 Comments

• At January 10, 2007, RrFish wrote:

  I've been using this service for 2 years or so, and loving it! I definitely recommend signing up for this monthly service, too!!
  
  I think it took about a month for this service to become effective when I signed up. Did the AU people tell you it'd take that long when you signed up?

NTT has recently formed a department that handles services for foreigners; that is, their staff members speak English. I was able to talk to one yesterday as they have a campaign now on internet subscription.

If you have inquiries for NTT, you can call them at 0120-915-932.

Ibaraki Prefecture Medical Information System

(There is also a site that you can see on your cellphone, but the English version is not available there. )

On the far right, you will see a link called "Search for a doctor". You can click on this link to locate doctors who specialize in certain areas, speak certain languages, are available on certain days, etc.

The information may be a bit out of date, so it might be a good idea to call ahead to confirm before you go.

If finding a regular public telephone is difficult, finding a public telephone that will let you make international calls is practically impossible.

Here are some places where you can find a public telephone in Tsukuba that will let you make international calls.

• On the 4th floor of the International Congress Center
• Seibu department store
• NTT Building
• Main reception area in JICA
• Ichinoya residence (Tsukuba University) between building 34 and 35 (Thanks, Ben!)
• On the Central AIST campus between the Geological Museum and Science Square Tsukuba, near the ATM (Thanks, RRFish!)

If you know of any others, please let us know in the comments so we can keep a list for newcomers and tourists.

3 Comments

• At August 28, 2007, Ben wrote:

  Hi

  There is a public telephone in Ichinoya residence (Tsukuba University) that can be used for international calls. The telephone is between the building 34 and 35.

• At August 29, 2007, Shaney wrote:

  Thanks, Ben! I have added that one to the list.

• At August 29, 2007, RrFish wrote:

  There's one by an ATM at AIST. It's located between the Geological Museum and the Science Square Tsukuba, so anyone can use that phone.

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!

You can use the same address to read the blog on your computer or your cellphone: blog.alientimes.org.

If you don't want to enter the address manually, you can point your cellphone's bar code reader at the following QR code:

The first page is quite large, so you may run into a memory error. If that happens, just click "ok" and continue. You should still be able to see links to a large number of articles.

...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!

2 Comments

• At October 3, 2007, TsukuBlog » Police warns people about the recent chain e-mails wrote:

  [...] 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! Related [...]

• At November 16, 2007, TsukuBlog » Car owners, be on alert! wrote:

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

The date written in red tells you when the books will be collected. (In this case, it will be on November 23 from 2pm.) The red circle in the middle of the paper indicates that you are to put the telephone books outside your front door. (If the second option is circled, it means that you should put the books outside the door of your dormitory. If the third option is circled, you should put the books at the first floor postal area of your building. It is also possible that there will be a different designated place written in the final brackets.)

The books will be collected even if it is raining, so please put them outside on the designated date no matter what the weather.

However, it is not as easy as it sounds. You have to cancel your current contract, subscribe to a new contract (both of which may involve fees), and then buy a new phone. Also, while your number won't change, your email address will.

Here is the procedure for changing your provider without changing your current phone number.

First of all, you have to contact your current provider. From your cellphone, call one of the following numbers depending on who your current provider is.

au: 0077-75470
DoCoMo: 151
SoftBank: *5533
TU-KA: 0077-75471

Your current provider will give you a "reservation number". Take that reservation number to your new provider. As soon as your new carrier can confirm your reservation number with your current carrier, your current contract will be terminated. You may be charged a "termination fee". (For example, au charges 2100 yen to terminate a contract.)

Once your contract is terminated, you will have to sign up for a new contract with your new provider and buy a new mobile phone. When you sign up for the new contract, you will be asked for ID, so please bring your driver's license and your seal (hanko) along with your reservation number. You may have to pay a "subscription fee". (For example, au charges 2835 yen to new subscribers.)

This will allow you to keep your current phone number, but as I mentioned above, you will not be able to keep your current email address. However, depending on the provider and your old and new phones, you may be able to get your address book information transfered to your new phone. If this is possible, then you can send an announcement to everyone in your address book to say that your address will be changed.

Source: au KDDI site

See also: Softbank Mobile: Really a Good Deal? on Mr. Jeremy's Blog.

2 Comments

• At November 24, 2006, Anonymous wrote:

  This is the best English explanation I've seen of this process. Thank you. I'm going to link to this from my post in which I blogged about why Softbank's new flat-rate plan isn't such a great deal for most people. (Shoot, it isn't even really flat-rate!) You can read it at http://misterjeremy.blogspot.com/2006/11/softbank-mobile-really-good-deal_12.html .

• At November 26, 2006, Shaney wrote:

  Thank you very much, Jeremy. I have added a link to your blog at the bottom of the post.