Japan Essay -- Geography Geographical Japan Essays

JapanGeographical SettingJapan is an island country in the newton Pacific Ocean. It lies off the northeast bound of mainland Asia and faces Russia,Korea, and China. quadruplet large islands andthousands of smaller ones make up Japan. The four major islands-Hokkaido,Honshu,Kyushu and Shikoku form a curve that extends for about 1,900kilometres.TopographyJapan is a land of great inseparable beauty. mountains and hills cover about 70% ofthe country. IN fact, Japanese islands consist of the rugged upper part of agreat mountain range that rises from the floor of the North Pacific Ocean.Jagged peaks, rocky gorges, and thundering mountain waterfalls provide some ofthe countrys just about spectacular scenery. Thick forests thrive on mountansides,adding to the scenic beauty of the Japanese islands. Forests cover about 68% ofthe countrys land.Japan lies on an extremely unstable part of the earths crust. As a result, theland is constantly shifting. This shifting ca make use ofs two of Japans most strikingfeatures-- earthquakes and volcanoes. The Japanese islands have about 1500earthquakes a year. Most of them are minor tremors that cause little damage, butsevere earthqaukes occur every hardly a(prenominal) years. Underseaquakes sometimes cause huge,destructive tidal waves, called tsunami, along Japans Pacific coast. TheJapanese islands have more than 150 major volcanoes. Over 60 of these volcanoesare active.numerous short, swift rivers cross Japans rugged surface. most of the riversare too shallow and steep to be navigated. Their waters are used to irrigatefarmland, and their rapids and falls issue power for hydroelectric plants. Manylakes nestle among the Japanese mountains. Some lie in the craters of extinctvolcanoes. A large image of hot springs gush from the foundation throughout thecountry. The Japanese islands have a total land area of about 337,708 sqkm. Theislands , in order of size, are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. The sea ofJapan washes the count rys west coast and the Pacific ocean lies to the east.ClimateRegional climates in Japan can be compared to those of the East Coast of theUnited States. Kyushu and Shikoku have a climate much like that of Perth. Theyhave long hot summers and mild winters. The island Honshus generally haswarm,humid summers. Winters are mild in the south and cold and snowy in then... ...ies of the language for use in different social contexts these varietiesare called social styles of speech. A large number of dialects are spokenthroughout Japans four main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu), as rise as on the smaller islands, such as the Ryukyu Islands. Some dialects-forinstance, those spoken in the southern parts of Japan, notably on the islands ofKyushu and Okinawa-are virtually incomprehensible to the speakers of other(a)dialects. As a result of this diversity of dialects, the Japanese use a standard,or common, dialect to facilitate communication throughout the country. The twodialec t families with the largest number of speakers are the dialect spoken inand around Tokyo, which is the common dialect, and the dialects of the Kansairegion in western Japan, spoken in cities such as Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe. Due tothe revolve of the common dialect through television and radio, most peopleoutside the Tokyo region speak the common dialect as well as a local dialect.RefrencesWorld Book Encyclopedia (Cd Rom) Grolier Encyclopedia (Cd Rom) Encarta 96Encyclopedia (Cd Rom) JETRO (Internet Site) CIA World Factbook (Internet Site)