Chiba

Chiba is a Japanese city with a population of about 1 million. Chiba is the capital city of the Chiba Prefecture region of Japan. There were about 20,000 foreign nationals in Chiba as of 2007, representing 2% of the population.

The city is located directly on Tokyo Bay and is about 40KM to the east. of Japan's capital city of Tokyo.

Chiba is split into six districts, Chuo-ku, Hanamigawa-ku, Inage-ku, Midori-ku, Mihama-ku and Wakaba-ku.

Some of the most popular tourist attractions in the city of Chiba are:

• Carrefour Supermarket - French based Carrefour have a substantial facility, offering 70,000 items of clothing, food and everyday household itemshttp://www.chiba-tour.jp/eng/sightseeing/bay/carrefour/e_carrefour.html
• Chiba City Museum of Art - Hosts around 6 exhibitions per year, specializing in Japanese paintings and woodwork.http://www.chiba-tour.jp/eng/sightseeing/bay/museum/e_museum.html
• Chiba Marine Stadium - Home of the Chiba Lotte Marines Baseball team, Asian champions of 2005http://www.chiba-tour.jp/eng/sightseeing/bay/marine_st/e_marine_st.html
• Chiba Zoo - A large zoo and theme park, which opened in the year 2000.http://www.rcdb.com/5700.htm
• Fukudu Denshi Arena - A football stadium which opened in 2005, The stadium hosts the soccer club JEF United. The stadium has a capacity of 19,781.
• Makuhari Messe - An international convention centre. With over 210,000 m2-wide area and enough room for 6,000 car parking.http://www.chiba-tour.jp/eng/sightseeing/bay/messe/e_messe.html
• Sharp High Technology Hall - A consumer electronics and technology park where mysteries of modern technology (e.g. Liquid Crystal TV is explained) http://www.chiba-tour.jp/eng/sightseeing/bay/sharp/e_sharp.html
• Yatsu Higata - Just outside Chiba this is a natural tideland and is a haven for wildfowl and migratory birds.http://www.chiba-tour.jp/eng/sightseeing/bay/yatsu/e_yatsu.html

The Chiba University has good academic standards and at any point in time has about 1,000 foreign students.http://www.chiba-u.ac.jp/e/about/overview/outline2009/data/2_11.htm Chiba has partnerships with the following cities: Vancouver, Canada since 1970 - Asuncion, Paraguay since 1970, Houston, Texas since 1972, - Quezon, Phillipines since 1972 - Tianjin, China since 1986, - Montreux, Switzerland since 1996 and Wujiang, China since 1996.