Volume 15, Number 11 |
Sponsored by the Tsukuba International Network (TIN), a symposium was held on Dec. 2 at the Oho Public Hall to discuss the various issues involved in educating international children and to plan for a major event next summer on this same subject. The participants included representatives from the University of Tsukuba Department of Education, members of the local Board of Education, teacher representatives of the local public elementary and middle schools, members of various volunteer groups helping with the education of international and Japanese returnee children and, of course, representatives of Tsukuba International School. The purpose of the discussion was to share various perspectives on the problems faced in dealing with the special needs of such children and potential solutions to the various problems that exist. Roughly 100 individuals participated in the spirited discussions.
Tokio Ohska, of the High Energy Physics Laboratory, is the convenor of TIN, and he has spearheaded the effort to get such a meeting off the ground. The purpose of this meeting was basically to get representatives of all of the various groups and entities involved in the education of international children to sit down together and share their experiences so that the various issues involved could be clarified. There are no easy solutions to meeting the special needs of such children, and so the first step is to increase awareness on the part of all involved as to the problems that need solving.
The number of school-aged foreign children continues to grow in many areas of Japan, and numerous other school districts are likewise facing similar issues of how to meet the educational needs of these children. It is hoped that this symposium will provide the impetus to begin devising creative solutions to these new challenges facing public education in Japan. A major conference of educators is being planned for next summer in Tsukuba on this same subject. The goal is to bring together educators from other areas of Japan who are dealing with the same issues along with policy makers and other influential people so that concrete proposals for the future can be considered.
It is clear to all that the present public education system in Japan is not designed to meet the realities of the rapidly changing society. Not only are large numbers of non-Japanese children entering into the system, but there is also an urgent need to internationalize the education of the Japanese children as well. The city of Tsukuba is perhaps uniquely suited for pilot projects designed to renovate public education to meet the needs of the 21st Century.
One suggestion made was to develop international education classes within a few schools in Tsukuba where international children could receive some of their education in their native languages while at the same time learning together with Japanese children for part of the day. Such a situation as that would, of course, require considerable changes in the mindset and policies of the Ministry of Education, as such an innovative program is not possible under current policies. While an ideal solution in the abstract, many practical problems would have to first be worked out, and thus more realistic solutions may be the way to go in the short-term. Finding such realistic solutions is the goal of this effort.
Possible Joint Efforts
Also making a presentation at this symposium was Barry Green, a member of the International Team of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, which is involved in the design of an experimental fusion device. He works at the ITER Joint Work Site located on the site of the fusion establishment of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) at Mukouyama in Naka-machi, about 12 km north of Mito. He described the small school that did exist there for several years for the children of researchers working on ITER. JAERI contracted with St. Mary's International School in Tokyo to operate the school, and it operated for several years before closing down last year.
The ITER project is a major international effort to develop nuclear fusion reactors to power the next generation of power stations. Two sites are vying for the location of the project, and the final decision is to be made next year between the Naka site and one in Aomori. The Project is scheduled to have a duration of at least 30 years, and its operation will involve more than 100 non-Japanese staff from many different countries. For the construction period (the first 10 years, once construction and regulatory approval are given), this number of non-Japanese personnel on site will be even higher. It is assumed that the number of children involved could be significant - certainly more than 100.
Assuming the Ibaraki site is chosen (and from the standpoint of not being in such an isolated location, the researchers are rooting for Naka!), it would mean there is a good possibility for developing an international school to serve both communities. Ideally, it would be located near an exit on the Joban expressway midway between Tsukuba and Naka, so that buses could easily reach it in a reasonable time. Once the commitment is made, the development of such a school could take place rather quickly. But certainly, it is at least a couple of years in the future. So in the meantime, maintaining the viability of the present Tsukuba International School is critical.
Tsukuba International School's Situation
Due to a number of factors that are all conspiring together at once, TIS is at a critical juncture in its existence. Student numbers fluctuate from year to year and the make-up of students varies as well. As TIS is entirely dependent for funding on the tuition that parents pay together with a few corporate and individual donations that come in, the financial base has always been unsteady. Corporate sponsored students contribute into the operational budget at a higher rate than do those paying out of their own pockets. This year, TIS's total student enrolment is down and none of the students happens to be corporate sponsored. The basic costs of running the school (teachers' salaries, rent, etc.) are, however, little effected by enrolment. Thus, TIS does not have enough funds available to meet its operational budget commitments through the end of the school year. In fact, projected income significantly short of basic needs. Thus, a major effort is underway to raise additional funds through corporate and individual donations as well as trying to procure some form of official public funding.
On top of this, TIS has to look for new facilities after the school year ends in June. Shuei High School has been providing TIS with 2 rooms since 1997, but it will no longer be able to do that, and so efforts are being made to locate new facilities as soon as possible.
The Second Annual Tsukuba International School Benefit Concert was held on Nov. 23 in Capio Hall. The variety and quality of music was well appreciated by the approximately 100 people in attendance. The group, Candela, a group of 5 international musicians from Tokyo, got the afternoon off to a rousing start with their unique sound of Latin jazz with a Japanese flair. The second half started off with the vibrant drums of the Tokiwa Daiko group with the help of the TIS children. This was followed by solos by Craig Coleman on the violin and songs by soprano Yoshiko Shimada. The next part of the program was a worldwide tour in music with songs played by Mr. Coleman and Hiroko Yamada on the piano with Ms. Shimada singing. The children and their teachers, Richard Keeling and Brian Hartman then joined in the final numbers with the chorus director Toshie Sato and accompanist Yukiko Hayashi on the piano.
When the Nov. 23 date was reserved last spring, it seemed like a good date, since it was a national holiday. But it seems that many other groups chose this same date for their events as well, and so many people that would have liked to come were not able to. TIS wishes to thank all those who participated including quite a few who bought tickets to support the school even though they knew they would not able to attend. Next year, TIS plans to have it on an ordinary Saturday afternoon if possible to avoid as many competing events as possible.
Pennsylvania is not thought of as exciting state when compared to California or New York. However, the history of Pennsylvania is just as exciting and really played an important role in the early history of the United States of America. A land grant, which later became the state of Pennsylvania, was deeded to Admiral William Penn, a Quaker, This land grant was given to settle a debt owed to him by King Charles the II, of Great Britain. Admiral
Penn wanted the land to be a safe haven for his persecuted Quaker friends. Pennsylvania was called the Keystone state, as it was the state that held the weak American Confederation together during the Revolutionary war. From the times of the Revolutionary War, until today Pennsylvania has played an important role in the history of the United States.
This month's guest is Ms. Linda Reinherz. She teaches a class in English Conversation in Kukizaki and studies Japanese, Ikebana and tea ceremony now.
Come and join the crowd at the monthly Coffee Hour at the Tsukuba Information Center (3F) on Wed., Dec. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.
Ibaraki International Association Tsukuba Office (Tsukuba Information Center)
Chikako Ikeda Tel) 0298-52-6789; Fax) 0298-55-8294; e-mail:www@info-tsukuba.org
Assuming you're one of the many foreigners who will be stuck in your home away from home during the holidays, please read on. If you are one of the "lucky" ones to have your pricy reservations for a trip home, then Bon Voyage!
Imagine that you're pushing your shopping cart down the aisle at Daiei, humming along with the Muzak-to-shop-by wafting down at you from the PA system: "I'll be home for Christmas... " when the depressing thought hits you that this year, you won't be home!!! Before you slide over the edge into a "Blue Christmas", consider some opportunities which may help to make the season bright.
In addition to various public concerts and exhibits, churches in Tsukuba are hosting special celebrations. The International Christmas Worship Service at Tsukuba Gakuen Church (behind the gas station across from Daiei) will be held a week early, on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 16th at 2:00 pm., followed by refreshments in the Christian Center next door. On Christmas Sunday, Dec. 23, the 10:30 a.m. Japanese service (which is translated into English over earphones every Sunday) will be followed by a Christmas luncheon with lots of good food. Visitors are welcome. Also, there will be a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service Dec. 24th at 6:00 p.m. featuring a well-trained choir. It will be followed by Christmas caroling at several locations. Another event of interest to parents of younger children will be a church school Christmas party with Santa on Saturday, Dec. 15 at 2 pm. For more information, call 55-1907.
If you are a bit homesick for Christmas lights (or if you come from a country where that isn't such a tradition, and just want to see them), the Tsukuba Christian Center/YMCA is decorated with thousands of colored bulbs, including lighted angels, etc. There will also be an "open house" every evening from Dec. 20th through 24th from 6 to 9 pm with various goodies and drinks prepared for those who would like to come and experience a little of the Christmas spirit. On Christmas Eve, the open house will begin immediately following the candlelight service.
The Tsukuba Catholic Church in Matsushiro has the following Christmas/New Year's season schedule for the international community: Sunday, Dec. 16, 3 pm, Spanish Mass followed by a party; Saturday, Dec. 22 at 10 am, Children's International Christmas Mass and party; Sunday, Dec. 23, Japanese Christmas Eve Mass 7:00 pm and International Christmas Mass 12:00 am midnight. On Christmas Day, there is a Japanese Mass at 10:00 am. A New Year's Eve International Mass begins at the stroke of midnight, and a New Year's Day Mass in Japanese begins at 10 am. For information, call Father Narita at 36-1723.
The Nozomi Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tsuchiura (Komatsu 3-23-27) also has special holiday programs, including the following: Christmas Sunday will be held Dec. 23 10:30, with a children's Christmas program at 6:30 pm. There will be a Christmas Eve service at 3:00 pm followed by a pot luck. The New Year's Day service is at 2:00 pm. All activities are bilingual, English and Japanese. The church is also beautifully decorated with lights and a nativity scene that is well worth seeing. It is located a little over 1 km south of Tsuchiura Station on the edge of a steep hill overlooking the city. For further information, call Glenn Hieb at (0298) 21-3578.
The Tsuchiura Christian Church has the following activities: A bilingual Christmas service will be held on Dec. 23 at 10:30 am followed by a pot luck dinner at 12:00. For more information, contact Paul or Faith Axton at 56-2167.
Tsuchiura Megumi Church, located near the junction of Tsuchiura-Gakuen Sen and the 6-go Bypass will have two Christmas services on Dec. 23 at 9 am, 10:45 am, with an evening service at 6 pm The Christmas Eve candlelight service on the 24th begins at 7 pm. For further information, call 22-2244. There is also a free violin and piano concert on Sat. Dec. 15 at 3 pm.
The Assemblies of God church will feature a Christmas program on the 16th at 10:30 am that will be followed by a pot-luck dinner at 1 pm. Activities at this church are mostly in English. For further information, call Pastor Tony Shreffler at 57-9006.
If it's the secular shopping hoopla that you miss, you'll love getting yourself trampled while checking out the seasonal offerings at the department stores. The real stampede, however, is in Tokyo, and for merry masochistic madness, a day at Akihabara or Harajuku is unsurpassed as pure holiday in"SANTA"ty!
Christmas cakes have become a Japanese tradition as well established as New Year's "omochi". Our advice, however, is to go easy on these white, strawberry-topped concoctions, sweet enough to give Santa diabetes. You may well be invited to one or more "bonenkai" (forget-the-year parties), where you will be enticed to down enough beer and "sake" to make you forget not only the year, but your name and how to get home. While we naively hope for sobriety in this season, we realize that there will be some plastered gaijin here and there. If you end up being one, don't drive! The police are lurking in wait to lift your driver's license.
For those of you who have not experienced a Japanese style New Year, you need to be prepared for the closing down of practically everything for at least 2 days. Most stores close down early on New Year's Eve and don't reopen until the 2nd or later. This is much shorter than "in the good old days" when stores were closed down until the 3rd or 4th, but one still needs to be sure to stock up on the basics, such as bread and milk. Of perhaps greater significance in this "cash society" is that the banks will be closed from December 31st to January 3rd. The "cash card" (ATM) machines will not be operational on Jan. 1, 2 and 3, and so you need to have enough cash on hand for your expected expenses (plus some for the spur-of-the-moment purchases at the various New Year's sales you'll run across).
A popular tradition in Japan is "hatsu moode", the first visit to a shrine to pray to the local gods for good luck in the New Year. Many try to combine this with a sunrise vigil on New Year's Day. One popular place to do this is on Mt. Tsukuba. Sunrise is at 6:49 am, and the cable railway from Tsukuba Shrine and ropeway from the Tsukuba San Keisei Hotel going to the top of the mountain begin operating at 4:30 and 5:30 am respectively. The Mt. Tsukuba Shrine provides Ama-zake (sweet alcoholic drink made from fermented rice) free of charge to all visitors beginning at 6 am on the first of January and continuing to the third. If you really want to go "gung ho" on the Japanese experience, you can even fork over 3000 for a "go-kitou" Shinto New Year's prayer for success in business, health, a passing grade in school or whatever your heart desires! (No guarantees!)
Another popular excursion is to visit Kashima Shrine, located about 75 min. by car east of Tsukuba in the coastal town of Kashima (home of the champion Kashima Antlers of the J-League professional soccer league). Purported to have been founded in 660 AD, it is one of the oldest Shinto shrines in all of Japan. The grounds of the shrine are spacious, with many interesting buildings and other points of interest, and is worth a visit any time of year. If you go on New Year's Day, be prepared for huge crowds! The Narita Temple is another very popular destination for Japanese wishing for a heavenly blessing, and well worth a trip for those wishing to experience the spectacle.
Another interesting New Year's outing that lets you experience a Japanese tradition is to visit the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to see the emperor and empress (from a distance, of course). The main gate of the palace will open to the public from 9:30 am to 3 pm on the second of January. The emperor, empress and his family will greet the crowds 7 times during the day. And when we say "crowds", we mean just that; so if you're interested, go early! This is just about the only day you can actually get inside the Imperial Palace grounds.
There are plenty of other interesting places within walking distance of the Imperial Palace if you still have time after your royal greetings. And since businesses are generally shut down for the day, the streets (and of course, the trains) are empty. If you've ever thought about driving around in Tokyo in your car, this is the time to do it - no traffic and easy parking.
Another popular New Year's custom in Japan is the flying of kites. The stiff breezes make this time of year good for getting some really big and heavy kites airborne, with the bigger ones taking many people to control. One good place to see them is at the Toride Kite Festival on January 12 (or following day in case of rain) between 10 am and 2 pm. The event takes place on the Tonegawa River bank away from any power lines. Another festival worth seeing that is also in Toride is the Tonegawa Dondo Matsuri, which centers around the burning in a giant bonfire the various New Year's decorations (such as "kadomatstu", the bamboo and pine branch decorations used to welcome the New Year) on Jan. 15 at 5 pm. In the coals of the bonfire, people roast senbei (and perhaps even marshmallows these days) on long sticks. For further info, call 0297-74-2141.
"Doro Ichi" is the name given to a special outdoor market specializing in "daruma" New Year's dolls and other New Year's decorations. This special one-day market will be held in front of the Yatabe branch office of city hall on Friday, Dec. 28th beginning about 3 pm and going late into the evening, and should be an interesting sight even if you are not interested in actually buying any decorations for your home or apartment. If, however, you would like to pick up some unusual souvenirs to take back with you, this should be a good opportunity.
The term "Doro Ichi" literally means "mud market" and has two possible linguistic origins. One is that traditionally December was the month when "dorobo" (thieves - literally "mud sticks") were most active. The other theory is that it had to do with the muddy roads of December and that when people went shopping on such roads, they tended to get muddy.
I. Like steak? Having tried most of the area's steak houses, my Top Tip goes to the Cook Barn. It's just off the Tsuchiura Gaukuen Line on the right as you approach Tsuchiura from Tsukuba (before the Rt. #6 overpass, across the street from 7-11, next to the Chimney Italian restaurant). The Cook Barn offers American Western decor with comfortable seating and friendly service. They even have a country & western live band twice a month.
As for the food, it's great!!! You can choose between Japanese Kobe steak and American Texas steak. I found that the Kobe steak, while significantly more expensive, included about * inedible fat around the edges. Since one pays by the weight of the cut, my verdict is: guilty, of excessive cost, yet exceedingly delicious.
If you're an English teacher, low-grade researcher, or illegal alien, you're probably interested in the best value for the money (since you don't have it to burn, neh?). In that case, and my own, the American steak set is the way to go. I recommend the most expensive and largest American cut (I forget what it's called). It's a perfect steak - no gristle, bones, fatty edges or chewing gum texture. It's big, it's juicy, and it's affordable at about 1800 yen for the set (which includes bread/rice, soup, salad and veggies - and perhaps a soft drink). Enjoy!!!
II. Taira and Live Talk: New in town? Want to know what's going on or engage in intellectual, moral, scientific or technological bickering? Then these local internet bulletin boards are for YOU.
Taira is supposed to be a forum for local international researchers, but they let pretty much anyone on (even me). It's main purpose is information exchange, which in practice consists largely of sayonara sales, car sales, announcements of local interest (Hash House Harriers events, for instance), gaijin bar plugs, and occasional lengthy arguments about anything controversial from love hotels to used car prices to mad cow disease to computer virus protection methods. To subscribe: send to majordomo@eve..bk.tsukuba.ac.jp and say 'subscribe' in the text.
Live Talk is really the place for lengthy arguments though. This is a less uptight forum with few rules and wide ranging topics. Political opinions, personal attacks, jokes (from rude to crude to brilliant), and even attachments may be found here. Access details through Taira.
III. New Blowfish Place Blows - Like to live dangerously? Then blowfish might be for you. This expensive delicacy is well-loved among Japanese who want to splurge now and again. It must be prepared by specially trained and licensed chefs to avoid the deadly poison which can bring death in minutes. Now, if this sounds like a fun evening out to you, go for it. However, I would avoid the new place on the left side of Tsuchiura Gakuen Line, about halfway to Tsuchiura with the sign showing a picture of a blowfish. There was recently an incident in which a staff member was suspected of stealing 60,000 yen which had been collected and set aside to pay the bill. Police were called, but when they arrived claimed that they couldn't really take any action. So the dinner party ended up paying double Y120,000 yen. Ouch!!!
IV. Mom's Cafe is a hole in the wall that's worth finding for a good deal on lunch. Tim Boyle, AT editor in chief, turned me on to this place. Highly recommended!!!
It's open daily from 11:30 am to 3 pm. Address: Takezono 2 chome 6-10, tel. 55-1533
good food with lots of volume at cheap prices. Lunch only. Example: a nice big steak with eggs, noodles, rice (or bread) salad and drink Y800. Similar lunch with teriyaki chicken Y650
The Ibaraki Hash House Harriers, the drinking club with a running problem, will hold their Christmas event on Sunday, December 23rd. Meet at Frontier Bar at 1pm. Everyone should dress in a Christmas-like manner and bring a really dumb wrapped present worth about 500 yen for the gift exchange. We'll then follow a short mystery course (run, jog, walk) to get to the beer and soft drinks and begin our party! Fun fun fun! Check our NEW homepage and leave a message at ibarakih3.hoops.ne.jp.
In his book "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" the philosopher Daniel Dennett suggests that you should not be surprised if aliens use similar arithmetic truths to earthlings (1 + 1 = 2), but you should be surprised or even flabbergasted if they used similar numeric symbols. Consideration of alien science might suggest otherwise.
A good many aliens are as lazy and unimaginative as humans, and would be quite content to use as simple, easy symbols as humanly possible. For a start, simple symbols are easier to recognise and quicker to write (no matter how many hands - or brain cells - you have).
And especially for numbers, it doesn't take too much imagination to make a single stroke to mean one, and a double stroke to mean two. A variety of human number systems show these similarities - at least for the low numbers. The Romans used a simple I, II, III; while the Chinese use the horizontal equivalents. Even the so-called Arabic numeral system has a vertical 1, then a 2 and 3 made up of lazily joined-up versions of the horizontal II and III.
Now, we can consider any (human or alien) vocabulary of symbols as a subset of all possible symbols imaginable. The total number of possible symbols we imagine will depend on what rules we use to compose the symbols: if we may use both straight and curved lines, if we allow diagonals, and little dots, and squiggly bits that loop round across each other.
If we assume for simplicity only symbols with horizontal or vertical straight lines, and consider symbols in ascending order of number of strokes, then the first possible symbols we get are I (or 1) and -. We should consider these symbols likely in any alien's alphanumeric system, since they are so simple and obvious and practical.
Next, we can consider symbols with two strokes: these would include II, T, and L. We can also add in the Greek (r), and the Japanese (ni) and \ (juu). All of these are also quite likely to exist as symbols out in the alien universe. If we allow diagonals we would also get V, X and 7, and the Japanese C (i) and g (to). We can continue for more and more strokes, until we end up with very complicated symbols such as Kanji characters like (odoroku). [Web editor's note: Switch your encoding to SHIFT-JIS to view the Japanese characters.]
Now, the simpler symbols are likely to coincide across cultures not just for reasons of practicality, but those of probability. If we measure the complexity of symbols by the number of strokes per symbol, then there will be a relatively small number of simple symbols theoretically possible, whereas there will be a vast number of potential symbols made from permutations of larger numbers of strokes.
That is, the greater the number of strokes, the vastly greater the number of possible permutations from which to create symbols. Therefore, not only is a very complex geometric figure - say composed of 100 strokes - unlikely to ever be adopted as a symbol (due to practicality), but the chances of even inventive and industrious alien civilisations coming up with the same 100-stroke symbol would become infinitesimally small. In contrast, precisely because there are fewer simple symbols to choose from, we are bound to bump into the same ones from time to time.
So we can guess that symbols with lower number of strokes are more prevalent in the universe than complicated symbols, both for reasons of practicality and probability. This is very roughly the case for Kanji characters. That is, in general, the most complicated symbols tend to be more uncommon than the simplest ones, though this is not systematically the case, and there are exceptions.
In a sense, then, the symbols are obeying a kind of natural tendency which is not completely arbitrary (unlike, say, the names given to numerals: one, ein, ichi). So, by this logic, the symbol 7 should be more likely to be an alien symbol for something than @ or #.
So, if an ambassadorial alien spaceship arrived in Science City, not only should you not be surprised that in their arithmetic one plus one equals two, but you might not be too surprised to find that they used symbols like I, +, 1, = and II.
Stephen Marshall
The author welcomes any refutation of the above arguments. s.marshall@asahi.email.ne.jp
I'm looking for a jogging partner to run 2 or 3 times a week somewhere around Tsukuba or Tsuchiura. I'm not too fast, but need the exercise. Call ToeJam at 0298 21 9372.
Exercise machine for sale. It's like a bicycle, but also goes up and down. Like new (because I was too lazy to use it). Only 4000 yen. Call Joe at: 090 3430 0573