JA PA N G eographical position

JA PA N

G eographical position an island country in East Asia Located in the Pacific ocean, It lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, Korea and Russia , north to the East China Sea and south to the Sea of Okhotsk It’s a complection of 6, 852 islands, the four largest are: Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku. They form 97% of Japan’s land area The capital is Tokyo

The Japanese called their country Nihon- «sun-origin“, that is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the «Land of the Rising Sun».

Landscape Most of the islands are mountain build, many are volcanic Japan’s highest peak, Mount Fuji, is a volcano.

C lim ate It changes a lot from north to south so we divide it into 6 climate zones The highest temperature ever measured in Japan is 40. 9°C The main rainy season begins in early May. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain

N ature plants The Japanese cherry (sakura) is the unofficial national flower of Japanese plum Japanese maple Pine Bamboo

Animals Lots of snakes Monkeys Tokyo crow Crane Japanese deer Japanese river otter Macaque Loggerhead turtle Golden eagle

Population Japan has the world’s tenth-largest population over 127 million people.

The Greater Tokyo Area is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

Language The national language is Japanese They have 3 scripst: Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana The language is actually suprisingly simple, I know cause I’m learning it. There are simple rules for almost all the grammar. For example: making a question, you just put ‘ka’ at the end of the sentence

G overm ent Japan is a monarchy and a parliamentary democracy Their leader is an emperor-Akihito as well as the parlament and a prime minister The emperor is the leader of the Shinto religion

Econom y Japan has the world’s second-largest economy It is a very developed country with very high living standards. It has the highest life expectancy of any country in the world and the third lowest child mortality rate

Religion Mainly Buddhists and Shintoists

Sports Japan as most Asian countries is well known for marcial arts especialy sumo. They also have a lot of judo, karate and modern kendo But today Baseball is the most popular sport They also play football, golf, and have a lot of auto races

C ulture A very big part of every day life is bowing. Japanese people bow when they say ‘thank you’, ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’ and many more. It has become such a tradition that some people even bow when they are talking on the telephone

G eisha Geisha «person of the arts» are traditional Japanese artist-entertainers. Girls had years and years of trainig starting at a young age, it included a variety of arts, Japanese musical instruments and traditional forms of singing, dance, tea ceremony, poetry and literature. By watching and assisting an older geisha, they learned selecting, matching, and wearing precious kimonos, applinig make-up and the art of conversation

Kim ono Is a traditional form of clothing worn by men and women. It’s very complicated to put on a kimono corectly. It has many layers and belts which have to go on in a precice order. It can have different motives, but the most traditional kimono has cherry blossoms, because they are the sign of japan.

Tea cerem onies Very traditional Long complicated ceremonies They even teach pouring the tea corectly in school Tea houses are very common in Japan

architecture

Japanese gardens In Japanese culture, garden-making is a high art Typical Japanese gardens have a home in the center from where the garden is viewed Japanese gardens often contain several of these elements:

Water, real or symbolic. Rocks or stone arrangements A lantern, or some kind of light A teahouse or pavilion. A hedge, fence or wall A bridge to the middle, or stepping stones

M anga and anim e They are a kind of Japanese comics They all have exaggerated physical features as a big head and very big eyes You read them “backwards”, starting at the end of the book

Food The Japanese are the worlds biggest fish and seefood eaters Japan kills about 1000 whales and millions of fish each year They eat food with chopsticks

Sushi The traditional japanese food It’s formed mostly of vinigared rice with raw fish or other seefood A very common tipe of sushi is Maki which is a roll from seeweed

Som e questions What is the other name for Japan? What’s the highest mountain called? Which flower is the national sign? Name some animals that live in Japan What is the capital?

Is Japan a monarchy? Name some sports that are popular in Japan. What do you have to learn to become a geisha? What are typical features of a manga? Describe sushi With what do Japanese people eat?