Tsukuba Science City is a city
in
Ibaraki Prefecture, 60
km
northeast of
Tokyo,
Japan. It has a population
of about 190,000 people and lies in the shadow
of
Mt. Tsukuba which looks like
Mt. Fuji with
its long smooth shoulders, a
volcano resting in its
old age. The name
Tsukuba is pronounced,
to my coarse ear, tskoo-ba, the first "u" is silent.
The city is home to over 60 scientific and educational
institutes, two of the most prominent being the
University of Tsukuba and the national particle
physics laboratory KEK.
The walk from Tsukuba Center to the Univerity is
lined with trees, passing through the Tsukuba Women's
University and some parks. The University campus is
unusually spacious, I'm told, for one in Japan.
The side walks in and around the campus are wonderful
for running: they are surrounded by tall leafy trees,
uninterrupted by cross streets. People are running
and cycling on them early in the morning and late in the
evening.
One interesting fact, which I'll share with you while
I have your eyeballs, is that Japan is very far east
in its time zone. That, coupled with the absense of a
daylight saving time, means that in June the sun is
rising around 4:30 am and setting around
7:00 pm.