Japan

Overview

A modern country with a rich heritage, Japan has long been popular with travellers. While is it one of the most expensive places to live, it is possible for the budget traveller to have a good time as well.

There are four main islands which make up Japan: From the north to the south: Hokkaido , Honshu the main island, Shikoku , and Kyushu . More than 4,000 smaller islands surround these four main islands. Japan is divided into 47 Prefectures.

Hokkaido is one Prefecture. Honshu is broken up into the following Prefectures: Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Niigata, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, Kaganawa, Yamanashi, Shizuoka, Nagano, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Aichi. Mie, Shiga, Kyoto, Nara, Wakayama, Osaka, Hyogo, Tottori, Okayama, Hiroshima, Shimane, Yamaguchi. Shikoku is broken up into the following Prefectures: Kawaga, Tokushima, Kochi, Ehime. Kyushu is broken up into the following Prefectures: Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka, Oita, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa. Japan will leave a lasting impression in your mind. From city based attractions in Tokyo, all the way to the natural wonders like Mount Fuji and the hot springs of Beppu, this country has something for everyone.

Japan also combines the most traditional of societies with the most modern of techniques. Technology lovers will love Japan, being the heart of all techological development, tourists greatly enjoy the diversity of shopping in Japan. In Tokyo the districts of Roppongi , Akihabara , and Shinjuku all offer all you could dream of in this respect. Between the neon signs and...more

History

Traditional Japanese legend maintains that Japan was founded in 600 BC by the Emperor Jimmu a direct descendant of the sun goddess and ancestor of the present ruling imperial family. About AD 405 the Japanese court officially adopted the Chinese writing system. During the sixth century Buddhism was introduced. These two events revolutionized Japanese culture and marked the beginning of a long period of Chinese cultural influence. From the establishment of the first fixed capital at Nara in 710 until 1867 the emperors of the Yamato dynasty were the nominal rulers but actual power was usually held by powerful court nobles regents or "shoguns" (military governors).

Contact With the West

The first contact with the West occurred about 1542 when a Portuguese ship blown off its course to China landed in Japan. During the next century traders from Portugal the Netherlands England and Spain arrived as did Jesuit Dominican and Franciscan missionaries. During the early part of the 17th century Japan's shogunate suspected that the traders and missionaries were actually forerunners of a military conquest by European powers. This caused the shogunate to place foreigners under progressively tighter restrictions. Ultimately Japan forced all foreigners to leave and barred all relations with the outside world except for severely restricted commercial contacts with Dutch and Chinese merchants at Nagasaki. This isolation lasted for 200 years until Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy forced the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.

Within several years renewed contact with the...more