Japan - Overview

So, you would like to know more about Japan?

Allow me to enlighten you with my pages on Japan. The Islands. The Cities. The People and Places I have visited, the pages are listed in the menu on the left hand side.

I have recently added a few new sections and updated a few of the old ones, so even if you’ve looked here before, there is some newer information on these pages. I have also added to the Japanese Phrases page, this is now in three section, The Basics, Required for Travel and Advanced phrases.

Select an area to view information

Overview
I have been to Japan now several times and each time I go, I am amazed by the people and culture of this very different country.

Located about 100 miles off the coast of Korea and running all the way up to Russia, this gives a variety of climates from almost sub-artic in the North, Hokkaido to tropical in the south, Kyushu.

Although Japan is one country it is made up of thousands of islands. Around 2000.

Although the main islands (From top to bottom) are Hokkaido, Honshu (the main island), Kyushu and Shikoku.

You can also click the area for more information or click here for a larger map.

Japan is about 1 and a half times the size of the UK and is home to around 128 million people, most of these being native Japanese. There are less than 1% of foreign nationals living in Japan.

The main language of Japan is Japanese and they have 4 written languages.

Kanji, Which is similair to Chinese characters.
Katakana a Japanese script (which is used mainly for names),
Hiragana another Japanese script (which is used for all other Japanese writing),
Romanji, which is what we would recognise as writing in the western world.

Japanese is a very phronetic language which is pronounced in short one, two or three letter syllables. Have a look at the Common Japanese Phrases page for more information.

Links
» Inside Japan Tours - http://www.insidejapantours.com