japan

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 * asia / Japan**


 * Japan** consists of four major islands, surrounded by more than 4,000 smaller islands. The country is located in the Pacific Ocean and nearby neighbors include China, North Korea, South Korea, Russia and Taiwan.

Time
[|Current time in Tokyo]

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Headlines
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42191096 http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/japanese-election/9062630 http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/snow-canyon-japan http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-03/muscle-suits-push-to-get-japans-elderly-working-again/7794490 [|Suburban ecotours in Japan offer city-goers a stroll off the beaten track] [|course-correction-deserted-golf-greens-into-solar-power-plants] [|new-volcanic-island-off-japan-a-natural-lab-for-life]

Wiki
japanese rugby2019 tokyo

rss

 * rss url="http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=japan&cf=all&output=rss" link="true" number="10" date="true" || rss url="http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/groups_pool.gne?id=1246966@N20&lang=en-us&format=rss_200" link="true" number="10" date="true" ||  ||

Flickr
[|Hisaaki Arima] - [|@/t260arima] [|How to make makiri] https://www.flickr.com/photos/vintage-japan/

Flickr Groups
[|Ecotourism Asia] [|Japan Mountains, 日本の山] [|Japanese Food Lovers 大好き! 日本の食べ物!] [|Japanese Manhole Covers] [|Kyoto, Japan] [|National Parks, Quasi-National Parks and Undersea Parks of Japan] [|Rice Fields] [|Japanese Food] Japan Tsunami / Earthquake photos 2011 The Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami March 11th 2011 Relief 2.0 - Japan

Wikipedia
[|Japan] [|Japanese archipelago] [|Kaiseki] is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner [|Pachinko] [|Seikan Tunnel] is a 53.85-kilometre (33.46 mile) railway tunnel in Japan, with a 23.3-kilometre (14.5 mi) long portion under the seabed. It travels beneath the Tsugaru Strait and connects the Aomori Prefecture on the Japanese island of Honshū and the island of Hokkaidō. [|Gunma_Prefectur] [|Haiku] [|Koshien_Stadium] [|Japanese_traditional_dance] [|Togarashi]

Tourism Portals
[|Japan]
 * Tourist Information Centers
 * The PDF Files of Brochures in 6 Languages
 * Visit Japan (VJ) by Japan Tourism Agency
 * [|@Visit_Japan]

Tourism Related Issues in Japan

 * **Golf tourism:** Before World War II, there were only 23 golf courses in all of Japan and only 72 in 1956. Now, there are a total of 1,700 golf courses in operation, with another 330 under construction and roughly 1,000 in various stage of planning. (Source: GreenFudge.org - "Japan, golf, pollution") (more on golf)

March 2011 Earthquake and the Tourism Community in Japan

 * **The Great East Japan Earthquake**: The March 11, 2011 earthquake that hit the Northeast regions of Japan was not only the largest in the country’s recorded history, but it also resulted in damage spread throughout the Northeastern coast, including many rural communities now semi-isolated due to limited road access and a severe lack of relief supplies across the region.
 * **"RQ" Citizens Disaster Relief Network** (**RQ市民災救援センター):** The nation-wide network of NGOs, citizens groups, nature schools, adventure companies, educational institutions and individual supporters ("RQ" is short for "rescue") was established shortly after the earthquake and tsunami, led by the National Ecotourism Center. Over the course of the first nine months (March-December 2011), RQ established seven volunteer-run support centers across eastern Japan and mobilized hundreds of volunteers to support local relief and rebuilding efforts. As of December 17th, 2011, RQ Citizens Disaster Relief Network officially concluded its mission, with parts of the organization's activities carried over to a new organization "RQ Citizens Disaster Education Center (般社団法人RQ災害教育センタ)
 * **"RQ" Citizens Disaster Education Center:** Continuing on the work started by RQ Citizens Disaster Relief Network, the Center aims to provide long-term support for communities affected by the Great East Japan Earthquakes by supporting and promoting independent efforts led mostly by local community members. In addition, the Center's long-term mission focuses on grassroots disaster education.
 * **[|Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation]** aims at providing innovative and practical recommendations toward the reconstruction of the Japanese socio-economic system.

Fukushima
[]

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Who to follow on Twitter
[|@AccessibleJapan] [|@Visit_Japan] [|@JapanEcotour] @ecotourismjapan List of Ecotourism Japan board members and advisers (@ecotourismjapan/sewanin) ピースロー計画　(@PeaceSlow)

Parks
[|Japan's National Parks - Wikipedia] [] [|Natural Parks Foundation] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanriku_Fukk%C5%8D_National_Park

Features
http://muza-chan.net/japan/index.php/blog/shinkansen-glimpse-of-history

Markets
Tsukiji Fish Market http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3021.html

**Recommended Viewing/Listening** [|Japan - the future and the past]

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/japan-stands-at-an-impasse/6342526

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**Recommended Listening** [|Fukushima revelations] - New revelations about the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe Japan streets ahead in global plastic recycling race - At 77%, country's plastic recycling rate is about twice that of the UK, and well above the 20% figure for the US [|Japan's 20 years of economic stagnation] - Why it is that Japan's economy, one of the most successful of the 20th century, has became a stagnant swamp? [|What Tokyo] - What is Tokyo? A city of villages or the Bladerunner theme park? With the help of a handful of Tokyo-ites, Tony Barrell investigates. [|Japanese philosophy: a short overview] - Since the 5th century, Japanese philosophy has assimilated and adapted foreign philosophies to its native worldview: picking and choosing ideas about self, government and social order from Confucianism, Buddhism and Western thought. But does this mishmash of thinking create a unique Japanese philosophy? From Ghost Town to Boom Town - (By Norimitsu Onishi, published on September 4th, 2008) Home to a silver mine whose production peaked nearly four centuries ago and finally closed in 1923, this tiny rural town in western Japan once seemed doomed to suffer the fate of so many former boomtowns. But after intense lobbying by Japan, the Iwami Silver Mine here, which many Japanese had never heard of, was improbably named a UNESCO World Heritage site last year. Having joined the ranks of the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, not to mention Japan’s own Kyoto and Nara, Omori - population 413 - has been flooded with hundreds of thousands of tourists.

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Elsewhere on the Web
[|Japan Ecotourism Society] [|Ecotourism Japan] [|Courant Marin Trip Company] [|David Lee Photography] Mt. Fuji Nature School　(特定非営利活動法人　アースバウンダー　富士山エコスクール） Peace & Slow Project (ピースロー計画) http://www.unwto-osaka.org/JRN [|Rebuilding Japan for people and nature, IUCN] http://www.bikkuri-donkey.com

Akihabara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara http://www.akiba.or.jp/english/ http://www.e-akihabara.jp

Akita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akita,_Akita

Hokkaido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaid%C5%8D http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/foreign/english.htm http://paper.li/Latitudeski/1309739485 https://twitter.com/Latitudeski

Kobe https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298562-d523431-Reviews-Portliner_Monorail-Kobe_Hyogo_Prefecture_Kinki.html

Nagoya
The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) was held in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan in October 2010. http://www.cbd.int/cop10 http://www.city.nagoya.jp/global/en

Sendai
http://www.sentabi.jp/en http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sendai

Sapporo
http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/english/index.html [|Nopporo Forest Park]

Taiji
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-07/an3a-japanese-dolphin-hunting-town-to-open-marine-park/5003262

Tokyo
tokyo

Festivals
Nagasaki Kunchi, the autumn festival of Suwa Shinto Shrine, is renowned as one of the great festivals of Japan. http://www.ltcm.net/~telkamp/japan/kunchi/kunchi.html http://www.ltcm.net/~telkamp/album/kunchi/index.htm

Markets
[|Nishiki Market - Kyoto]

Museums
Gunma Museum of Natural History []

News
http://www.japantimes.co.jp

Transitions Abroad
[|Living in Japan] [|Business and Economy in Japan] [|Education and Study in Japan]

Trees
Jomon Sugi, a giant cedar on Yakushima Island off the coast of Japan, attracts 250,000 Japanese tourists to the island each year, making Yakushima Japan’s most popular World Heritage Site in terms of domestic travel.

Indigenous Japan
[|Ainu (アイヌ?) (also called Ezo in historical texts)] are an ethnic group of Japan, indigenous to Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. Most of those who identify themselves as Ainu still live in this same region, though the exact number of living Ainu is unknown. This is due to racial issues in Japan resulting in those with Ainu backgrounds hiding their identities and confusion over mixed heritages. Official estimates of the population are of around 25,000, whilst unofficially the number is upwards of 200,000 people. http://uowblogs.com/ausccer/2013/09/05/journeys-in-japan

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Reading
Some books worth reading pre-trip, especially if it's your first time in Japan are: [|Lost Japan by Alex Kerr] - part of the Lonely Planet non-fiction series - this gave me a great insight from a westerners perspective into some of the secrets and disappearing parts of Japan's traditional culture [|Travelers's Tales Japan] - I am a big fan of this series, an edited selection of stories [|Unbeaten Tracks in Japan] - get lost and get found all at once... [|A Traveler's History of Japan] by Richard Tames - a bit dry for my particular taste but a very thorough and interesting background to Japan's traditional cultural heritage and how it has changed to meets the contemporary demands of a fast-paced modern world.

Nagoya is a showcase of coastal development and city building in Japan, which simply shows change in relationship to biodiversity and human beings. The southern part of the Nagoya International Convention Center was once sea and present day Nagoya has been developed by repeated landfill works since the early modern age. This excursion traces human activity, Higata (tidal wetlands), and forests that were all changed and lost during the course of development http://www.cop10.jp/excursions/excursion/10.html

Editing
[|Japan] [|Asia]

Twitter moments https://twitter.com/i/moments/817384547155410945

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/kansai/kyoto/sights/parks-gardens/arashiyama-bamboo-grove

Baseball in Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaido_Nippon-Ham_Fighters http://www.fighters.co.jp

Buzzword bingo
[|Ainu] - Asia - Baseball - [|Benito] - Cherry Blossom - Haiku - [|Heikegani] - Indigenous - Islands - **Japan** - [|Jomon Sugi] - Pacific - [|Pachinko] - Rugby - Tokyo - Trees

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Geography The four main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu; Honshu is the largest and referred to as the **Japanese mainland **.

=Nakagin Capsule Tower =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower

===[|Iconic Designs: Nakagin Capsule Hotel] ===

http://www.kisho.co.jp/page/209.html