Daily life

Each local area has a mutual association to promote friendship, clean up around the neighborhood and prevent crime. Normally, these associations hold various mutual community events and get together to clean common spaces in the area.

You may choose whether or not to join a local residents' association. However, it will be advantageous to you to join, because you will receive local information through the association. We recommend joining, as it will give you acquaintanceships in the neighborhood and be useful for preventing crime.

Environmental Business Division (TEL: 634-0351)
Ibaraki City Government collects family trash on specified days of week in scheduled areas, using garbage collection trucks. The City government collects ordinary trash twice a week, large discarded articles twice a month, cans, glass bottles, and PET bottles twice a month, and used newspaper, cardboard, and magazines once a month. Collection dates are established for each area. Check the date at a waste collection site or ask your neighbors.

How to put out trash for collection

1. Put your trash in a specified collection site before 8:00AM on the scheduled day. Do not put out any trash after the waste has been collected, on other days, or at night.
2. Sort your trash into "ordinary garbage," "large discarded articles," "cans, glass bottles, and PET bottles," and "old newspaper, cardboard, and magazines." Then put out the sorted waste materials on the proper collection day.
3. Remove moisture from your kitchen refuse and wrap it well.
4. Knives, needles, broken glass, fluorescent lamps, etc., are dangerous. Put needles in a can and cover it with a lid. Wrap other dangerous articles in paper and mark the bundle: "Dangerous" before you discard it.
5. Spray bottles and gas tanks for tabletop gas ranges can explode. Use them until they are completely empty and make a hole in them before discarding them.
6. In principle, trash should be put into transparent plastic bags so trash collectors can see inside.

Sorting trash

1. Ordinary waste: Kitchen garbage, wastepaper, old clothes, earthenware, plastic, ashes, glass, and raked-up leaves
2. Large discarded articles: Furniture (desks, chairs, chests, carpets, bedclothes, etc.) electric home appliances (except washing machines, refrigerators, TV sets, air conditioners, and personal computers), bicycles, large metal items, glass, and branches and tree trunks.
3. Cans, glass bottles, and PET bottles for drinks and meat
4. Old newspaper, cardboard, and magazines

Unusual amounts or kinds of trash

If you have a lot of trash, from moving and so forth, please contact to the Environmental Business Division directly. Your trash will be collected for a fee.

1. Unusual items for collection: A much amount of trash at one time, such as from moving, or innerspring mattresses, or animal carcasses.
2. Trash that cannot be collected normally: Earth and sand, stone, hazardous items (gunpowder, gas tanks, petroleum, waste oil, etc.), business waste (from shops, factories, etc.), and other industrial waste

Business Division of the Water Department (TEL: 620-1691)
Engineering Division of the Water Department (TEL: 620-1692)

Application for water to be supplied

When you are scheduled to move to Ibaraki City, phone us before moving in, to request us to open the water cock.

Water fees

Water fees consist of the basic fee and the use rate fee. Every two months a bill for two months of use will be sent to you through the post. If you have public sewerage at your house, the sewerage use fee will be charged at the same time. If you want the water fee to be deducted automatically from your account, please request automatic transfer from your bank.

When you move out

Please call us to request a reservation for closing the main cock before you move out.

Problems with the water supply

If you have any problem regarding your water supply, please inform the landlord, building manager and our Water Department.

1. No water comes out: Check to make sure the valve on the meter box is open. If water does not come even though the valve is open, the water line may be temporarily shut off for maintenance, etc. Please contact the Engineering Division of the Water Department (TEL: 620-1692).
2. You get brown looking water: Most times this is caused by rusty water pipes. This may due to water line maintenance or an accident. Do not drink the water if it gets really discolored.
3. Get water with a white sediment: Pour some water in a glass. If the water starts clearing from the bottom, there are air bubbles in the water. This is not a problem.
4. Abnormally high water use fee: There may possibly be water leaks in some line. In this case please contact the Business Division of the Water Department.

Repair of water line is required at a residence

If this occurs at night, or on Saturday or Sunday, call our Water Association Repair group (TEL: 626-2300). In daytime and weekday hours, call any authorized plumber.

Takatsuki Business Office of the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEL: 676-3131)
In Japan, electric power is supplied in either100 volts or 200 volts and the voltage is stable. There are areas supplied with 50 Hz and others with 60 Hz AC. In Ibaraki city, we use 60 Hz.

Application for power

When you want to request electric power for the first time, please apply at a customer center at a business office of the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. Then turn on the power breaker at your house. The power breaker may be in a distribution panel at an entrance or in the kitchen wall in your house. A postcard to Kansai Electric Power may be attached to the distribution panel or fastened to the power meter. Request them to supply your electric power using this post card. If you urgently need electric power right away, please call the office above.

Payments

A bill will be mailed to you every month on the basis of a meter reading. Please pay the bill at the nearest business office of Kansai Electric Power, a bank, or a convenience shop. You can also arrange to transfer electricity payments automatically from your bank account.

When you move

If you are going to move out, please inform the nearest sales office of Kansai Electric Power in advance, and settle the balance of your bill.

Problems with electricity

No electric power: If your use of electricity exceeds the amount you contracted for, the power breaker will operate and shut off the power. This is not a fault. Turn off the switches to your electric appliances and then turn the power breaker back on. The power breaker will also shut off if there is a short circuit because of a problem with an appliance, or if there is a damaged cord in use. In this case, pull the power plug of the appliance out of the outlet, and turn on the power breaker again.

If the electricity does not come after you turn on the power breaker, or if you have any other questions, please contact the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc.

In Japan, there is town gas that is delivered through pipes, and propane gas that comes in tanks.

Town gas

Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (TEL: 0120-59-4817)
If your house receives town gas, a gas meter (light green or white) is installed outside your house. There is a gas cock on the gas meter. A tag with new application contact details is attached to the gas cock. Please call the phone number given there. If you cannot read the contact details because the tag has faded, please call the number given above. Normally, staff from Osaka Gas will visit you the next day. Please contact them as early as possible.

When you move

If you want to stop receiving gas because you are moving, please inform Osaka Gas in advance. Osaka gas staff will visit you, close the gas cock and settle up the bill.

Problems with gas

Dedicated desk for reporting gas leaks (TEL: 0120-5-19424)

1. If you smell a gas leak, first close the source cock. Town gas is lighter than air so it will go out into the air if you open a window or door. However, propane gas is heavier than air and so leaked propane gas will tend to sink to a low space or settle behind objects. Open a window or door and sweep the gas out using a broom.
2. If there is a possible gas leak, never turn on a ventilation fan or an electric light, because a spark could ignite the gas and cause an explosion.
3. If you feel an earthquake, first turn off the flames of gas devices, then securely shut off the source cock.

Propane gas

If your house uses propane gas, a tag with contact details will be attached to the gas meter. Please contact the company using the information on the tag. A fuel delivery agent will bring propane gas tanks. Please note carefully that devices meant for town gas cannot be used with propane gas and vice versa.

Osaka Prefectural Government and Ibaraki City Government offer various medical checks and health inspections to residents, as well as various kinds of medical advice in the Japanese language.

Osaka Prefectural Ibaraki Health Center (8-11, Osumi cho, TEL: 624-4668)

Health inspections: AIDS (HIV) screening, tuberculosis checkup, hepatitis virus screening, etc.
Advice: AIDS (HIV) consultations, mental health care, etc.
Open: From 9:00AM to 5:45PM
Closed: Saturdays, Sundays, and at New Years

In Japan, vehicles (automobiles and bicycles) run on the left side of the road, and pedestrians walk on the right side of the road. Bicycles are supposed to run on the left, just like automobiles. However, if a road has a bicycle lane or a road has a sign saying "Passing bicycles permitted" bicycles can be ridden on pedestrian sections.

Precautions for parking your bicycle

There are zones around railway stations where it is prohibited by regulation to park bicycles. If you park there, the bicycle may be taken away to an impoundment site. When it is moved this way, the bicycle will not be returned unless you will pay storage charges and moving fees for your bicycle.

When you park your bicycle, use one of the parking lots that charges for holding bicycles, sponsored by the city government.