Japan's position in the world
Japan is an island country in the Far East.
If you look at the world map, it is in the place surrounded by a red circle.
It is a really small island country in the world.
However, the land is long from north to south, and the climate and climate are completely different between Hokkaido in the north and Okinawa in the south.
This different climate and climate in Japan influences Japanese culture and food with various faces.
This diversity is one of the attractions of Japan.
Let's put the spotlight on Japan and take a closer look.
Japan's land
The land of Japan is as follows.
The Japanese archipelago is composed of four large islands, the northernmost island is Hokkaido, the largest island to the south is Honshu, and the islands to the south are Kyushu and Shikoku.
The island written in a separate frame at the bottom right of the map is Okinawa Prefecture, located far south of Kyushu, and is written here due to the structure of the map.
The boundaries on the map represent prefectures.
There are 47 prefectures in Japan.
In this way, Japan's territory is long from north to south, and winters in Hokkaido and the northern part of Honshu are very cold and snowy.
On the other hand, southern regions such as Kyushu and Shikoku, including Okinawa Prefecture, have a very warm climate, and Okinawa Prefecture in particular is located in the south as close to Taiwan as it has a climate similar to Hawaii.
Therefore, in winter Japan, you can enjoy winter sports such as skiing in cold regions such as Hokkaido and mountainous areas.
On the other hand, in summer Japan, you can enjoy marine sports such as surfing mainly in the warm southern regions.
In Japan, where the weather is nice in spring and autumn, you can enjoy the scenery of the four seasons, such as cherry blossoms in spring and colored leaves in autumn.
In this way, there are various ways to enjoy Japan depending on the region and season.
On the next page, let's take a closer look at each region of Japan.