Culture

1.0 JAPAN, ‘LAND OF THE RISING SUN’

It was the first visit to the China Imperial Court when the Japanese introduced themselves as the people who came from the land of the rising sun. Japan or in Japanese pronounce as Nihon or Nippon sometimes referred to as ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ because the characters that make up Japan’s name means ‘sun-origin’. The capital of Japan is Tokyo, by far is world’s most populous metropolitan area in the world and it is the second largest metropolitan area in the world. The main language in Japan is Japanese.

1.1. GEOGRAPHY

Japan is an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean near the north-eastern coast of Asia. It is an archipelago of 6,852 islands and it consists of four largest islands which are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku.

Figure 1.1: Map of Japan

(www.japan-guide.com,2013)

1.2.1. HONSHU

Honshu is the largest and most populous island of Japan and it is called the mainland of Japan. It is roughly 1300 km long and ranges from 50 to 230 km wide, and its total area is 230,500 km², around 60% of the total area of Japan. It is larger than the island of Great Britain, and ranks between the states of Minnesota and Michigan in area. Honshu has 5450 km of coastline. The climate is highly variable from the cool north to the subtropical south. (www.japan-guide.com,2013)

Figure 1.2: Map of Honshu Islands (in dark brown shaded)

(www.japan-guide.com,2013)

1.1.2 HOKKAIDO

Hokkaido on the other hand located in the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. The climate and geography of Hokkaido is dominated with long winters and mild summers. Hokkaido was the last part of Japan to be developed and populated by Japanese population, with Japan's aboriginal Ainu race having lived in the area for thousands of years. Hokkaido features many great national parks, agricultural areas and ski fields. The architecture in Hokkaido is more similar to northern America or Europe because of the cold...