Living in Tsukuba Science City
Parks
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Doho Park |
Tsukuba offers its citizens many parks to relax in, including twelve “city parks”.The Research and Education District alone has 93 parks and green areas, covering approximately 100 hectares of land. The different parks are connected by pedestrian walk and bikeways. Some parks has equipped with tennis courts and round pavements for jogging and walking.
Doho Park, located at the southern part of the city, has a baseball ground, a football ground, a gymnasium and a heated indoor pool equipped with solar heating system.
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Doho Park |
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Doho Park |
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Matsumi Park |
Matsumi park, located at the center of the city, has a 45m height of observation tour and a Japanese style garden with flowers and a small pond. At Hokubu Park, located at the northern part of the city, an international tennis tournament “SEKISYO CUP” is put on every year.
Pedestrian Deck
Both the city center and residential areas have pedestrian walk and bikeways for safety and convenience. They run separate from the main roads of the city and connect residential areas, schools, cultural and commercial facilities, and parks. This “Pedestrian Deck” stretches over about 48 kilometers and is surrounded with vegetation that adds beautiful greenery to the streets of Tsukuba.
Cultural Facilities
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Tsukuba EXPO Center |
The Nova Hall, located in the city center, holds concerts for international musicians invited from abroad. Also, the “Tsukuba Cultural Center ARS” combines a city library and an art museum, and “Capio” built as a citizen’s center, has facilities for sports and dramatic performance. Tsukuba Expo Center, located next to the Tsukuba railroad station, is a Science Museum which displays various models of scientific achievement and has a planetarium in order to expand children's interest into a field of science and technology.
Health Care Facilities
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Tsukuba Medical Center |
There are many medical facilities located in Tsukuba Science City, including Tsukuba University Hospital and Tsukuba Medical Center and Tsukuba Memorial Hospital, etc. which offer advanced medical services with English. The enhanced medical system in Tsukuba Science City includes a doctor-to-patient ratio well above the prefecture and national average, with 342.3 doctors for every 100,000 residents. In addition, more than forty clinics in the city offer medical treatment with English and some of them offer it with Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Germany.
Educational Facilities
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Primary school |
There are 26 kindergartens (including 4 international kindergartens), 37 elementary schools, 15 junior high schools (including one private school), and 7 high schools (including one private school) in Tsukuba Science City. There is also currently one secondary education school that carries out unified upper and lower secondary education, and a unified elementary and secondary school is expected to open in 2012.
There are three universities in Tsukuba: the University of Tsukuba, The Tsukuba University of Technology and Tsukuba Gakuin University.
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The University of
Tsukuba |
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The Tsukuba University
of Technology |
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The Tsukuba Gakuin
University |
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Tsukuba International School |
Ibaraki Prefecture’s first international school, “Tsukuba International School(TIS) managed by Tsukuba Global Academy”, opened in 2009 as an English-based elementary and junior high school.
Foreign Researcher Housing
Tsukuba Science City has housing for foreign researchers active at research institutes or universities, and their families. The same facility also provides support for general daily Tsukuba life to its residents by assistance with procedures for school entry, giving advice on shopping and other daily life activities, and offering Japanese language classes and cultural exchange events.
Commercial Facilities
There is a large-scale shopping center called “Tsukuba Creo Square” in the city center, as well as shopping centers with supermarkets, banks and post offices in the Takezono, Namiki, Amakubo, and Matsushiro residential areas. The 2004 opening of another large shopping complex,“ LALA Garden Tsukuba,”Onosaki, and the 2008 opening of“ IIAS Tsukuba,”located in the Kenkyu-gakuen Station of the Tsukuba Express line, further improved on the city’s commercial facilities.
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Super market |
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Tsukuba Creo Square |
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LALA Garden Tsukuba |
Tsukuba International Congress Center
Tsukuba International Congress Center was constructed to enhance research exchanges, revitalize regional economies, and hold conventions. Since its opening in June 1999, approximately 2,800,000 people have visited. Apart from the large hall with a maximum capacity of 1258 people, there are also 2 medium sized halls and conference rooms capable of handling meetings of 2,500 people using video-conferencing. Advanced support equipment, such as a 400-inch Hi-Vision Projector, a six-language simultaneous interpretation system, and a satellite teleconference system are also available. Out of all of the international convention facilities in Japan (excluding universities, etc.), TICC held the second most international conventions (48 conventions) in 2008.
Major Roadways
Eight arterial roads were constructed in the Research and Educational District, three running north-south and five running east-west. The city center has planting zones placed between walkways and roads to ensure total separation. Roadways are laid at a lower level than that of the surrounding buildings, reducing the amount of traffic pollution. In addition, power lines have been installed under some of the arterial roads creating a neater and more spacious environment.
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Tsuchiura-Gakuen Main Street |
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West Main Street |
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East Main Street |