Author: Shaney Crawford, Issue: July 2006, Topic: Events

The National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) will hold its annual Summer Open House on July 22, 2006 from 9:30am to 4pm. (Reception will close at 3pm.) This is the first weekend of the summer holidays, so we are expecting a lot of visitors!

Many facilities on the Onogawa campus will be open to the public. There will be three speeches (in Japanese).

(1) How many crows are there? The difficulty of counting living things.
(2) Long, hot rainy seasons?! Japanese summers in 50 years
(3) Sustainable transportation in Tsukuba

You will see exhibits of living creatures that play a vital role in environmental issues (lightning bugs, stag beetles, creatures from the sea, etc.), you can try to power a television with a bicycle, and you can do a water taste test. You can also choose Tsukuba's eight best scenes and drive an eco-friendly electric car (if you have a valid license). A total of fifteen facilities will be open to the public, including the Climate Change Research Hall, the Environmental Risk Research Hall, and the Research Laboratory of Material Cycles and Waste Management.

No need to apply. Just come on the day! (If you are planning on bringing a group of 15 people or more, please let us know so we can help you plan your day.)

Tours

There will be English Guided Tours of NIES in the morning (10:30) and the afternoon (2:00).

Activities

• display of Japanese and foreign stag beetles
• explanation of supercomputer system – demonstration for children
• eco lectures: (1) How many crows are there? The difficulty of counting living things, (2) Long, hot rainy seasons?! Japanese summers in 50 years, (3) Sustainable transportation in Tsukuba
• your Choice: Tsukuba’s top eight views (computer survey)
• how to search for environmental information on the internet
• NIES pamphlets, publications
• test water quality by looking at the organisms in the water: Where do fireflies live (Meeting room on 3rd floor)
• introduction to photochemical chamber (large experimental chamber with an artificial sun)
• mock experiment to create aerosol
• experiment to create aerosol and clouds
• driving experiment (are you an eco driver?)
• how much exhaust does a car produce (shown with balloons)
• light air and heavy air (explaining the stability of the atmosphere with balloons)
• environmental measurement game (find the pollution)
• explanation of inversion layer and wind tunnel
• applying the measurement of radioactive isotopes (C14) by MS accelerator to environmental research
• explanation of restricted area for chemicals (analysis of dioxins, health effects, etc.)
• explanation of heat treatment plant, landfill plant
• quiz on sorting garbage and recycling
• introduction to global environmental monitoring, graphics used to predict climate change
• water taste test (pure water, tap water, mineral water)
• flip comics (climate change, ozone layer, carbon sequestration in forests, yellow sand)
• quiz: How well do you know the environment?
• generate electricity by bicycle
• JAL (passenger flights monitoring the world's CO2 concentrations)
• Karuta game: UV
• demonstration of liquid nitrogen used to freeze and store environmental specimens
• explanation of long-term preservation methods, facilities
• fish and shellfish of Tokyo Bay: panel and aquarium
• bio-eco engineering (cleaning water with microbes and plants)
• observing and photographing microalgae with optical microscope, scanning microscope
• endangered microalgae
• the relationship between plants and the environment (plants that affect stratospheric ozone, plants that are damaged by tropospheric ozone)
• rare plants: plants from the yellow sand of China
• measuring the environment with bioassays (display and demonstration)
• fish of Tokyo Bay (pool for touching banded dogfish)
• game: environmental risk of chemicals (not a dangerous game!!)
• environmental monitoring, environmental preservation with recombinant DNA technology, environmental cleaning by microbes
• see your own DNA (first 40 people, JHS and under)
• see the underwater microworld with a microscope
• watch zebra fish being born
• bio quiz, bio colouring
• animals used in experiments
• the effects of diesel exhaust gas
• explanation of nanoparticle experiment
• see nanoparticles (cloudmaking experiment)
• use superballs to understand particles in the atmosphere

Presents

Visitors to the Open House will receive original NIES cloth shopping bags and a fan made of recycled paper. Also, if you fill out a survey, you will receive a pen and if you complete the stamp rally, you will get herb/flower seedlings.

Access

National Instutite for Environmental Studies
Onogawa 16-2, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
http://www.nies.go.jp

There will be a FREE BUS available to take you from Tsukuba Center (platform 9) to NIES to AIST (another research institute that is holding an open house on this day). If possible, please come by bus rather than by car, as parking is limited.

BY CAR:

From Tsukuba Center, take Nishi Odori south. Pass Minami Odori, Ninomiya House, Otaruzushi, and Doho Koen. You will see a Coco's Restaurant on your left. Turn right at that intersection. (If you reach Route 354, you have gone one intersection too far.)

Please note: There are only a limited number of parking spots available on the NIES campus, so we would like to ask visitors to come by alternate means of transportation, where possible. Please see the list of public transportation options below.

BY BUS:

There are three different buses you can take to the Open House.

(1) Special FREE NIES/AIST Open House Bus (operating only on July 22, 2006 from Platform 9)

	To NIES and AIST
9	10 20 30 50
10	00 10 20 30 50
11	00 10 20 30 50
12	20 50
1	00 20 30 50
2	00 10 30 40
3	00 10 20 40 50
4	00 10 20 40 50

	To AIST and Tsukuba Center	To AIST only	To Tsukuba Center only
9	18 28 38 58
10	08 18 28 38 58
11	08 18 28 38 58
12		28 58	42
1		08 28 38 58	12 22 42 52
2		08 18 38 48	12 22 32 52
3	08 18 28 48 58		02
4	08 18 38 48 58

(2) Science Tour Bus (500 yen)

(3) Kanto Bus

From Tsukuba Center, take a bus for "Hitachi no Ushiku Eki" (ひたち野うしく駅) and get off at "NIES" (環境研究所前). The trip will take about 10 minutes.

From Hitachi no Ushiku Station, take a bus for "Tsukuba Daigaku Chuo" (筑波大学中央) or "Tsukuba Center" (つくばセンター) and get off at "NIES" (環境研究所前). The trip will take about 13 minutes.

Flyers

(click to enlarge)

<< Summer 2006 Festivals | Master Index | Tsukuba International School Moves To New Location >>

---

Alien Times Sponsors

The advertisements that appear on paper and online versions of The Alien Times do not necessarily represent the views of the Alien Times. The Alien Times takes no responsibility for any transactions that occur between advertisers and readers.

---

The authors of articles that appear in Alien Times reserve the right to copyright their work. Please DO NOT copy any articles that appear in Alien Times without first receiving permission from the author of the article (when known) or the Alien Times Editor.

Funded by the Tsukuba Expo'85 Memorial Foundation, Printed by Isebu