A traditional Japanese cooking class will be held at the Ninomiya Public Hall. We will make rolled sushi, boiled spinach and miso soup etc. If you plan to bring your children, please bring their lunch and drink. Please contact the following as soon as possible.
When: Monday, November 11 from 10:00 to 13:30
Place: Ninomiya Public Hall (Cooking Room)
What to bring: Apron
Cost: 200 yen for each person
Contact/Inquires: Ms. Kuramochi 52-0611 (English) Ms. Tsukamoto 36-0839 (Japanese)
This year marks the 30th anniversary of restoration of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. Many events were held in various cities of the two countries. A large concert with prominent Japanese artists held in Beijing was covered on Japanese television and in the news in September. Many Chinese people live and work in Tsukuba, but only a few people have a chance to talk with them. Why don't you talk with Ms. Wang Kun this coffee hour about the differences and similarities in habits and cultures between China and Japan?
Ms. Wang Kun has worked at the University in Shenyang for 9 years and she works in computing at University in Tsukuba. She came to Japan about five years ago. One of her impressions of Japan is that it offers "the best service in the world". For example, when you enter a shop, the clerk says, "May I help you?" with a smile; the clerks then explain everything in a very kind manner and bow down when you leave saying, "Thank you very much!" She thinks it is a very good customer service. But some Japanese think that saying "May I help you?" or "Thank you" automatically and emotionlessly doesn't have the same effect. What do you think? Come join us and let's talk about the differences and similarities at this month's event.
Date/Time: Wednesday, November 27 from 14:00 to 16:00
Guest: Ms. Wang Kun (China)
Place: Tsukuba Information Center
Amazing displays of chrysanthemum bushes bent and formed into fantastic displays of flowers can be seen through Nov. 24 at the Kasama Chrysanthemum Festival. Every year, incredible floral displays reminiscent of flower covered floats in the Rose Parade are on display. But these are not flowers that have been glued on. They were grown that way! Prizes are awarded for the best, biggest and most beautiful chrysanthemums, and with some individual flowers being 30 cm across, some are really huge.
Kasama is located about an hour's drive north of Tsukuba and is well worth the trip anytime of the year. Famous for its pottery, you can enjoy the pottery theme park just to the east of Kasama while you are there. The best way to go by car is to go over the mountain ridge to Yasato, along what is called the "Fruit Line" Road, running along the east side of the ridge of mountains just north of Mount Tsukuba. You'll come to another mountain pass to go over on what has now become route 42, which drops down into Kasama. That road dead-ends just after crossing the railroad tracks just to the east of Kasama Station. Turn right and go a few hundred meters to the end of that road. Turning to the right and proceeding east for a kilometer or so will bring you to the "Geijutsu no Mori" Pottery Park (on the left), while turning to the left and proceeding north for about 1km will take you to the park (on the right) where the chrysanthemums are.
Local Displays
If going to Kasama is a bit far, you can find interesting displays at several places in the Tsukuba area. The Mt. Tsukuba Shrine has always had some very nice chrysanthemum displays during November, and in past years, local flower enthusiasts have shown their works of floral art at Matsumi Park, near the city hall in Yatabe and other such locations.
Every year in November, unsuspecting drivers get caught in traffic jams caused when roads are closed temporarily to let the marathon runners by. So plan your trips on Nov. 24 accordingly. The race begins at 10:30 am starting from the athletic field in Tsukuba University and first proceeding around the loop road within the university before spilling out on Higashi Odori and proceeding north. There is also a 10 km race that begins at 11:10, but that remains within the university.
The marathon course continues up Higashi Odori past KEK and takes a left towards the Northern Industrial Park. After looping around that, the course then proceeds south along the Yatabe-Akeno Bypass until it comes to Tsuchiura-Gakuen Sen (called Expo Odori along this part of the road). From there, it proceeds back to downtown Tsukuba and turns north again on Nishi Odori, where it proceeds up past Hiratsuka Odori to the road with the overpass just north of the Tsukuba Kinen Hospital. From there is goes west back to the university loop and then back down and around into the athletic field where it ends.
Every year, hundreds of athletes vie for the winner's wreath, with the times ranging from around 2 and a half hours on up to 4 or more. With a little calculation, you can figure out just about when to expect the runners to go by. For instance, the lead runner should turn the corner onto Nishi Odori (just west of Seibu) at about 12:15.
What does a big earthquake feel like? The Tokyo Northern Disaster Research Center has an earthquake simulator that you can experience free of charge. They'll simulate a series of small quakes, ranging from 2 to 8 on the Japanese scale.
The simulator can also let you experience the exact magnitude and duration of the 1923 Kanto Earthquake and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. While all the demonstrations are in Japanese only, non-Japanese speakers can follow along without much trouble.
Take the Namboku Subway line to Nishigahara Station, about 30 minutes from central Tokyo. The Center is about a five-minute walk from the subway station, just past the gigantic Tokyo Hospital and the local fire station. For more information, call 03-3940-1811 (Japanese only).
There are earthquake tips, including a checklist of emergency supplies to keep handy and instructions on how to best prepare your home, on our web site at usembassy.state.gov/tokyo/wwwh7111.html
When you call a local number in Tsukuba, you only have to dial 6 numbers now. For example: 55-1234. However, as of January 11, 2003, you will have to dial an 8 (the last digit of the area code), which means dialing 855-1234. The areas that are affected by this change include Tsukuba, Tsuchiura, and Ushiku amongst others. You may have to change your speed-dial settings on your phone, or your dial-up settings on your computer, if you use a local provider.
Making a local call used to look like this
(optional area code 0298) 55-1234
but will look like this in January
(optional area code 029) 855-1234
Any questions, call NTT at 0120-125-575.
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We could probably all stand to watch a little less TV and do more exercising and family bonding, but the occasional TV show can do quite a bit to raise our spirits. Television can be a good friend when you don't have anything better to do. And it is a very good learning tool when used properly. Japanese TV shows often make things easier for us non-native Japanese speakers by writing what people say on the screen in big letters. This helps both by focusing our attention on what people are saying and by working as a reading drill. And it is much more interesting (and often funny) than using boring old textbook drills or tape-recording listening exercises. I don't actually watch a lot of TV (I'm more of a video-renter and movie-seer), but I can recommend a couple of shows. First of all, in the mornings there is often some long-running drama going on for 15 minutes or so. I think it starts around 8:15am. The themes of these shows are often quite simple, so they can be good for practicing your listening skills. Also, if you watch Fuji Terebi (channel 8), you will be able to see a lot of famous people in Japanese pop culture. Their shows tend to be funny, which helps you stay interested and makes you want to watch again next week - and it can all be considered "benkyou" (study) so you don't have to have that guilty feeling that usually accompanies your couch potatoing. One of my favourites is SMAPxSMAP (although I think it has gotten less funny lately) because you can meet many famous people during Bistro SMAP, and because the banter between the members is often very funny. (And, I guess I have to admit that I have a schoolgirl crush on Shingo...that *may* have something to do with my appreciation for the show.) SMAP's music is cheesy and their show is sometimes lame, but I find it's a good one to watch so that I am not completely out of touch with the pop culture world around me. Online TV guides can be found at www.tvguide.or.jp and tv.yahoo.co.jp but they are only in Japanese. Some English information is available at www.zone81.com, but it might be outdated. Do you have any recommendations of TV shows (surely you can do better than SMAPxSMAP!) or TV guides on the internet? Please send your suggestions to email@alientimes.org and we will publish them in a future issue. |
Channel Guide
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TSUMRA, the Tsukuba Muslim Residents Association, would like to let Tsukuba residents learn a little about Islam. The following is a message from Tsumra: Peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you. Do you know that Ramadan Month will begin on Nov. 6? In Ramadan Muslims stop eating or drinking from sunrise till sunset. The following description of Ramadan in Malaysia will give you an idea of what it is all about.
Malaysia is one of the greatest Muslim countries. The Malaysian Muslims receive the month of Ramadan with great joy and unequalled happiness. They change their style of living during this honorable month. Reciting the Ever-Glorious Quran, remembering Allah and staying at mosques are their main concern. On the few last days of Sha'ban, Muslims of Malaysia prepare themselves for receiving Ramadan. They prepare mosques for prayer and buy their necessities of food. On the 29th night of Sha'ban, the Ministry of Religious Affairs tries to sight the new moon. When the sighting is established, the ministry declares it via mass media. Muslims exchange congratulations due to the advent of Ramadan. On this great occasion, the local authorities sprinkle streets with water, clean yards and public squares and hang electric lamps in the main streets.
As for the way of receiving Ramadan in the countryside, Muslims there celebrate the occasion through gathering at mosques and congratulating one another. Also, they exchange meals of breaking the fast. The rich and well-to-do traders normally establish feasts for providing meals of the breaking of the fast at mosques and in the streets.
Truly, the Malaysian community is distinguished with special kinds of meals. Mostly, all family members attend prayer in the mosque regularly. Schools for teaching the Quran are widespread all over the country. The government encourages these schools which intensify their courses during this month. They teach Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Tafsir (Exegesis of the Quran), the Islamic Creed, the Arabic language besides the Ever-Glorious Quran. The Malaysians conclude the month of Ramadan with completing reciting the Honorable Quran in mosques, schools, TV, Radio, etc. Then, they make other celebrations for receiving the blessed 'Eid Al-Fitr'.
In TSUKUBA Muslims will also pray regularly at their mosque. The address of the Mosque: Ibaraki, Tsukuba-shi, Owaza Kaname Moto Ue Kuchi, Hori Azanishi Aino Yama, 315-10. Tsukuba Muslim Residents Association President: Ahmed Nabawy, Tel.090-9318-5075. e-mail: mamounpcp@hotmail.com
FREE Charitable Dinner every Saturday
Tsukuba Muslim Residents Association also sponsors a FREE Charitable Dinner every Saturday at 5 p.m. The purpose of this dinner is to strengthen the feelings of brotherhood and to serve the local community. Everybody is cordially invited to this dinner. For further contact president of Tsukuba Muslim Residents Association, Ahmed Nabawy.
An English language interdenominational worship service is held once a month normally on the fourth Sunday of every month at 2 pm. at the Tsukuba Gakuen Church near Daiei. The November service will be on the 24th and will be followed by an informal fellowship time at the Tsukuba Christian Center next door. The Japanese language congregation meets every Sunday morning at 10:30, and the service is translated into English over earphones. There is also a Bible Study in English every Wednesday evening at 8:30 in the Christian Center. For more information or help with transportation, call Tim Boyle at 55-1907. Mark your calendars also for the annual Christmas dinner for Saturday evening, Dec. 14.
The Tsukuba Catholic Church has an English mass at 8:00 am every Sunday and the Japanese masses on Saturday night (6 pm) and Sunday morning (10 am) are accompanied by an summary of the message in English. There is also a Spanish mass on the 3rd Sundays at 3 pm. On the last Sunday of the month, there is a coffee social after the English mass. For information, call the church at 36-1723. The Tsuchiura Catholic Church offers an English mass on the last Sunday of each month at 3 pm (tel. 21-1501). There is also a Portuguese mass on the 3rd Saturday at 7 pm.
The Tsukuba Baptist Church offers an English language Bible study before the Japanese service every Sunday from 10 to 11 am. It is located in Inarimae just east of Nishi Odori on the street closest to the meteorological observation tower. Tel. 58-0655.
The Megumi Church in Tsuchiura (489-1 Kami Takatsu) also offers English translation of their 10:30 Japanese service over earphones. An English Bible class is held every Sunday morning at 9:00. There is also an International Fellowship group that holds a monthly pot luck dinner usually on the third Saturday. For information on that, call Melissa Ishio at 38-1374. For more information, call the church at 22-2244 or e-mail LDN03144@niftyserve.or.jp (Also see their Tsuchiura Megumi Church Web Page at http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/ro/tmc/index.html).
The Tokyo International Church, Tsukuba Branch in Amakubo 3-3-5 (across from Tsukuba Univ.) offers a 10:30-noon Chinese (Mandarin) service interpreted into both English and Japanese. There is also an English language Bible study every Sunday evening at 7 pm. For information, call Rev. Huang at 52-6820.
The International Christian Assembly meets every Sunday at their church just off of Tsuchiura-Gakuen Sen east of Tsukuba (just behind the restaurant with the dragon on the roof) from 10 am for Bible Study and 10:30 for worship. On Easter Sunday, they will have their 5th Anniversary celebration with a dinner and drama following the service. For more information, call Tony Shreffler at 57-9006.
The Nozomi Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tsuchiura (23-27 Komatsu 3-chome) also offers programs in English, including a worship service Saturday evenings at 7:30 pm and a Bible class on Sunday mornings at 9:30. English Bible information courses are available any time. For more information, call Glen Hieb at 0298-21-3578.
The Tsuchiura Christian Church offers an English message translated into Japanese every Sunday morning at 10:30 am. For information, contact Paul Axton at 56-2167.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Tsukuba ward is located at Sakura 2 chome 35-2. Services are translated into English over headphones. The Sacrament Meeting begins at 10 am followed by Sunday School at 11:10 and Priesthood and Relief Society at 12:00. A Gospel Doctrine class in English is also offered. For more information, contact 57-9795.The Jewish Community of Japan, invites anyone of the Jewish faith in the Tsukuba area to feel welcome at any of their programs in Tokyo. Sabbath services each Friday at 6:30 pm followed by Sabbath dinner; Kosher Kitchen, Saturday morning, 9:30 am. Contact 3-8-8 Hiroo, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo 150; tel. 03-3400-2559, fax. 03-3400-1827.
They say the shinkansen trains are so punctual that you could set your watch by them. This seems somehow fitting, since railways historically contributed to the standardisation of time.
Before the advent of high speed travel on a national scale - we're talking here of steam trains going at upwards of 50 miles an hour - there was no need to have standard times across countries. Each locality on Earth would set its own time, according to the position of the sun in the sky. Places just a hundred miles apart would have their own local time zones. There was not much need for wider synchronicity if no one could physically get from A to B fast enough for anyone to notice.
In Victorian England, lunchtime in London would arrive about ten minutes before lunchtime in Bristol - at least, until the railways came. Then, they needed to have a common standard time so that the trains could run to the same time (or run late to the same time). So Bristol time became London time. Similar mergers happened all round the world, in a kind of globalisation of time: the world became a less parochial place.
Yet we can imagine still wider standardisations, beyond our planetary parochialism. Perhaps a pan-galactic Board of Timekeeping has decided that everywhere in the Milky Way should have a common standard time, and that our solar system should have its time graduated to the grand cycle round the centre of the galaxy. This orbit takes us about 200 million earth years.
Our Earth year is based on the time it takes for our planet to go round our star - an arbitrary and insignificant duration in galactic terms. But we could convert to a new cosmopolitan calendar, relativised to some alien meridian, like a galactic Greenwich. This new galactic mean time would still be tricky, since the galaxy rotates at different speeds in different parts, so there would still need to be some local adjustments.
And, just like getting rid of old measurements like miles and yards, we would have to get used to counting in (fractions of) galactic 'years'. The new calendar would cut across our existing calendars, with virtually no chance of a neat fit. Not only are our points of reference based on local astronomy, but our counting system is based on Earthling anatomy. The galactic calendar could use any other counting system voted in by the pan-galactic Board (this might come down to a headcount of the most powerful members - perhaps dominated by the aliens with the most heads).
Having decided the unit of time, the Board would need to decide when to count from. It is hard enough for Earthlings to agree on what date our calendars should be counted from. Nevertheless, at the universal scale it might yet be simpler, if we could relativise all time back to the Big Bang. But, curiously, cosmologists are rather vague about when exactly this was. Though there are detailed calculations about the first few seconds after the Big Bang, we can't really be very precise at all about which actual year it took place (never mind which day of the week).
But worse, how will time be synchronised across the galaxy? That is, how can we ensure there is really a universal 'here and now' against which all time is fixed? Physicists say that there can be no universal 'now' (as explained in a recent edition of Scientific Alien). This is because everything is relative to everything else: time seems to speed up and slow down, depending on who you are and how fast you go.
Now the aliens most interested in pan-galactic time-keeping are the type that go gadding about in rocket-ships. Like the railways before them, it is for the needs of rocket-ship schedules that standard times are required.
But rocket-ships travelling at high speeds will have a different gauge of time from planet-bound citizens. Clocks on the rocket-ships will go slower, so time will not necessarily be the same everywhere. This causes big problems for space-ship schedules - passengers are always confusing local time and galactic time. (This is nothing compared to the arguments that rage about baggage - since hold luggage is measured by weight, there are always disputes about excess charges when arriving at 'heavier' planets.)
So, while an alien rocket-ship might be a symbol of galactic cosmopolitanism in your spaceport, it would probably be the last thing you would want to set your watch by.
(c) Stephen Marshall stephen@cyberspace.co.jp
Meetings every Wednesday night at Hot Stuff from 9pm. Future walks and information at eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp/twmc. Please contact Tadashi Takemori at takemori@eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp.
Join the Ibaraki Hash House Harriers, the international drinking club with a running problem. Check our homepage at ibarakih3.infoseek.ne.jp and leave a message on the BBS.
