Tsukuba is very much a science city, with Tsukuba Science City being a center for research and education. What sets Tsukuba apart from other town developments in Japan is the large scale and fast pace of its development into a place with high quality of scientific innovation.

Tsukuba is also the home of the JAXA Tsukuba space center, which we enjoyed a lot.

The owl (fukuro) is the official bird mascot of the city. You’ll find several owl sculptures placed in the Tsukuba central park (Chuo Koen), se below. It’s a bit similar to the owls which can be seen decorating the Ikebukuro station. (with the word play ike-fukuro).

Owls are often used as a lucky charm. The reason for this can be found in the Japanese name for OWL – FUKURO （フクロウ or 梟) – which can also be written with different KANJI CHARACTERS that give it a LUCKY significance. FUKURO can be written as 福来郎 （福: fuku, LUCK; 来: kuru, comes; 郎: ro, suffix for a boy’s name), meaning LUCK COMES, or as 不苦労　(不: fu, no; 苦労: kurou, hardship), meaning NO HARDSHIP OR SUFFERING.

This type of word play which can make the names of objects either auspicious, or inauspicious is called GORO AWASE (語呂合わせ), and in this way, owls have come to be one of the more popular motifs for ENGI MONO, or lucky charms.

 

We rented bicycles and had a look around Tsukuba. We had a lunch at the lovely Cafe Andersen before going to the Tsukuba Space Centre. This is the operations facility and headquarters for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Japanese astronauts involved in the international space station are trained in part here in addition to the training they receive in Houston Texas. We didnt have time to see it all, so will come back an other day. We also cycled across the Akatsuka park and went over to the Cineplex where the cinema is. Thrilled to find they have a climbing wall, but also a hot spring. Might come back for that later. Hoping the see the new Pikachu movie when it comes out.