However, I have ridden the Tsukuba bus on a day when it took an hour just to reach the edge of Tokyo and enter Chiba-ken.

Ask around and see if there is a bus that runs to one of the stations that is served by the Tsukuba Express. The labels on the fronts of the buses are in Japanese only, for the most part, but I have lucked out at times and found one that was going precisely where I needed to go.

They usually run between major train stations.