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 Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:58 pm
I'm creating this thread to talk about the geography of Japan, it's different regions, and how it's all affected the culture of present day Japan. Japan Geography FactsJapan is an archipelago that comprises of over 3,000 islands. It's population is about 127 million people. For some perpective, it's roughly the same size as California, but has 4 times the population. This doesn't take into consideration that 72% of Japan is mountainous, so with so little livable land and so many people, it's incredibuly crowded. Japan's external isolation from mainland Asia and internal isolation contributed to Japan's very group-center culture and strong nationalism. There are 4 main islands (from north to south) Hokkaido 北海道
Honshu 本州
Shikoku 四国
Kyushu 九州Even though it's relatively small, Japan covers a long distance from north to south, so it's climate is somewhat similar to the East Coast of the United States. The northern most point of the island of Hokkaido is on the same latitude as the Vermont/Canadian border. Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture, is on the same Latitude as Miami, Florida. As you can imagine, areas like Hokkaido and northern Honshuu are know for mild summers and cold, somewhat snowy winters, while Kyuushuu is known for mild winters and hot, sticky summers. The RegionsJapan is officially divided into 8 regions. Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kyuushuu are considered their own region, while the largest island, Honshuu, is divided into 5. The regions are as follows. Hokkaido The rural north island Tohoku The north point of Honshuu, also somewhat rural. Kanto The east part of Honshuu where Tokyo is Chubu Central Honshuu, where Nagoya and Nagano are. Kansai Also known Kinki, the central western part of Honshuu where Osaka and Kyoto are. Chugoku Western tip of Honshuu, where Hiroshima is. Shikoku The smallest of main islands. Kyushu The southernmost region. The PrefecturesJapan is further divided into 47 prefectures, which are much like states or provinces. The standard suffix for a prefecture is "ken." （県） All the prefectures are (prefecture name) + ken except for Hokkaido (Do, means route, circuit) Tokyo-to ("to" means metropolis) Osaka-fu Kyoto-fu Tsuki Chan Sempai posted this great website where you can click on the regions and prefectures. Thanks, Tsuki-chan! Clickable Regions and PrefecturesThe Next Eight Posts will be devoted to each of the regions.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 12:24 am
Hokkaido
Hokkaido is it's own island, region, and prefecture. It has it all! You don't think "rural" when you think of Japan, but this region is about as close as you get, especially when you get into the northeastern area.
In Kanji, Hokkaidou is written 北海道, and literally means "North Sea Way." It's capital, Sapporo, is the 5th largest city in Japan (1.8 million people).
Sapporo is home to the beer of the same name, hosted the 1972 Olympics, and is famous for it's Yukimatsuri (snow festival) held every February for 3 days. Sapporo is a relatively young city as far as development goes, and it's roads were built on a North American style grid system.
More to come . . .
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 1:00 am
Tohoku Region
The Japanese usually pretty appropiately named things, so it's no surprise in Japanese Touhoku-chihou 東北地方 means "North east region." It's covers the northern part of Japanese main island, Honshu (honshuu 本州 literally means "root state"). It's relatively rural, even though it has 40% more people than Hokkaido, it still only has 25% of the population the Kanto region has. It also doesn't have natural harbors, so most of the population lives inland.
The largest city in the area is Sendai, about 190 miles north of Tokyo. About 20% of the countries rice is grown here, and the region also depends on tourism. The region has 6 prefectures: Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Miyagi, and Fukushima.
more to come . . .
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 1:18 am
Kanto Region
Kantou (関東) means "East Checkpoint", and is named for the Kanto Plain in which it encompasses. Being one of the only flat areas in Japan has lead to this area being extremely developed. Tokyo isn't only the largest city in Japan, but the Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world. There are 4 cities with over a million people in the region, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Saitama. The whole region, Tokyo especially, is considered the center of Japan's economy and culture.
7 prefectures make up the region: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gumma, Chiba, Saitama, Tokyo, and Kanagawa.
more to come.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 11:52 pm
Chubu Region
The Chuubu region (中部 meaning "center part") is a large region between Tokyo and Osaka. It's also a very diverse regions, stretching from the Pacific Ocean and the indistrual area of Nagoya, up through the highest Japanese mountians, including Mt. Fuji and the prefecture of Nagano, to the more sparcely populated west cost of Honshu, bordering the Sea of Japan. Being so large and diverse, the region is unofficially divided into subregions, Tokai (on the Pacific coast), Hokuriku (on the Sea of Japan coast) and Koshinetsu for the rest.
The region has 9 prefectures: Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Nagano, Gifu, Fukui, Yamanashi, Shizuoka, and Aichi.
More to come . . .
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 7:44 pm
Kansai Region
Kansai (関西 "western checkpoint) is a distinct region covering 7 prefectures and large cities such as Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe. The region has particular historical and cultural influence since the captial of Japan was in this area until the 19th century. Today, it contains the second most populous metropolitan area in Japan. The Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe metropolis, (aka: Keihanshin 京阪神) is as populous as the Greater Los Angeles Area, and the 8th most populous in the world. Kansei is also know for it's distinct "Kansai-ben" (dialect). It's also known as the Kinki region (近畿 roughly means "close capital")
Kansai has 7 prefectures: Shiga, Kyoto, Hyogo, Mie, Nara, Osaka, and Wakayama
more to come . . .
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:19 pm
Chugoku Region
Chuugoku (中国 meaning "center country") consists of 5 prefectures on the Southern most Tip of Honshu. It's the least populated region on Honshu. Most of the region's 7.7 million residents live on the Sanyo side of the region, which borders the Inland sea between Honshu and Shukoku, while the San'in, which borders the seas of Japan, not nearly as conjested. The San'yo side enjoys a mild climate and more natural ports, while the San'in side is wetter, cooler and lack many ports. The largest city in the region is Hiroshima.
Chugoku also means "China" (same kanji and everything) so to refer to the region, people use the full term "chuugoku-chihou" (chihou is "region")
The Chugoku prefectures are: Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Yamaguchi.
more to come . . .
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 10:50 pm
Shikoku Region
Shikoku is the smallest of the main islands (and the smallest region), and is also the least populated region. It's also the only region to have no city with more than a million residents. As it's name indicated ( 四国, means "four provinces") there are 4 prefectures. A mountain ridge crosses the island from east to west, and most of the regions 4.5 million people lives on the north side of the island. It's been realively isolated from the rest of Japan throughout it's history, but in 1988, the Seto-Ohashi bridge (kind of redundant, since hashi means bridge sweatdrop ) opened, making the trip from north Shikoku to Honshu much easier and shorter.
The 4 prefectures are: Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, Kochi
more to come . . .
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:10 pm
Kyushu Region
Last, but certainly not least, is the Kyushu region. Kyuushuu 九州, means "9 states" but there are only 7 prefectures on the island itself, and the small island chain of Okinawa is considered part of the Kyushu region too. The island did have 9 provinces until 1871, but then a new prefecture system came into place, and the 7 new borders were drawn.
Kyushu was always Japan's link to the outside world. Due to it's proximety to the Korean peninsula, any Chinese thing that influenced the Japanese culture almost certainly came though Kyushu first. And for over 200 years until Matthew Perry came, Nagasaki was the only port open to outside trading.
There are 7 prefectures on the island of Kyushu: Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki and Kagoshima. Okinawa is also considered part of the region.
More to come . . .
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:41 pm
Tokyo
Even though it's always refered to as Japan's capital and largest city, there is, techincally, no incorporated city of Tokyo. What is commonly refered to as "Tokyo" is actually 23 special wards. The wards (suffix -ku 区) are like their own cities, ranging in population from 42,000-830,000 people. However, some governmental functions are handled by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The Tokyo metropolitan government offices are in the ward of Shinjuku, so theoretically, Shinjuku is the captial of Tokyo. The 23 wards are:
Adachi
Arakawa
Bunkyo
Chiyoda
Chuo
Edogawa
Itabashi
Katsushika
Kita
Koto
Meguro
Minato
Nakano
Nerima
Ota
Setagawa
Shibuya
Shinagawa
Shinjuku
Suginami
Sumida
Toshima
Taito
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:50 pm
Alright, I think that's it, I might post a map of Japan or something in this post, who knows.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:51 pm
This post will be for any other misc. stuff (don't want to type out the whole word) Now I'm going to unlock the thread!
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:00 pm
You know, we had to memorize every single prefecture AND it's capital last year. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
eek
Sorry about that. sweatdrop
My favorite city is Kyoto! It was once the capital of Japan, and its still THE center of culture. I'm dragging my boyfriend there as soon as I can! All the buddhist temples and shinto shrines and gardens... *misty eyed*
Okay, sorry... I love Japan!! heart
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 6:28 pm
I think I would like Kyoto best, myself. They say it's the most in tune with it's past, and still has an anchint feel.
But, out of Tokyo, I'd say Edogawa. It just... sounds interesting. eek Probably because of the 'Edo', as in the past name of Tokyo and 'Gawa', from 'Tokogawa rein' and the Tokogawa house which was the Shogun for a while. xp
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Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:47 pm
Oh god do I ever love Japan, and wow I finally meet people that also think Kyoto is the best place to visit! If I ever do go to Japan, I'll have to stay there for at least 6 months. I liked "Lonely Planet's: Japan" episode (travel guide show) , it really showed all the general things about Japan. I'm currently leafing through this book all about the history of Japan, its very interesting. God I'm such a bookworm sweatdrop .
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