Assigment 1: Striking Facts about Japan
Post three striking facts about Japan. Surprise me and everyone in our class!
This is a blog marathon. You can only post ideas that others have not posted yet.
Due is 11am on April 24.
Please make sure to cite the source.
1. Japanese celebrate Christmas, but it is more like Valentine’s day in
the western world.
2. Sometimes the trains are so crowded that railway staff are employed
to cram passengers inside.
3. Poorly written English can be found everywhere, including T-shirts
and other fashion items.
http://www.facts-about-japan.com/Popular-Culture/
1. More than 70% of Japan consists of mountains, including more than 200 volcanoes. (Mt Fuji being one of the active ones)
2. Many toilets in Japan have a built-in bidet system.
3. Average life expectancy in Japan is one of the highest in the world. Japanese people live an average of 4 years longer than Americans.
1. The Asian giant hornet (known as 大雀蜂 [おおすずめばち] or giant sparrow bee in Japan) kills 20 to 40 people every year in Japan. These hornets are generally about 2 inches in length with a wingspan of about 3 inches! The venom in their 1/4 inch stingers can even kill a person who is not allergic to stings. These wasps are found from India all the way to Japan, but are most often found in the Japanese mountains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet
2. Only 0.9% of land in Japan is used for permanent agriculture. As a result, Japan imports much of its necessary natural resources. However, 85% of farms in Japan plant rice yearly and Japan is the ninth largest rice producer in the world
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html
and
http://www.fao.org/rice2004/en/p8.htm
3. The United States currently (as of April 23rd, 2009) does not have an ambassador assigned to Japan. Japan, however, does have an ambassador to the US.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html
1. The Japanese Prime Minister is elected by the legislature, not the public.
2. There are very few public trashcans in Japan.
3. Noh, a type of Japanese theatre, can be up to eight hours long
http://www.tooter4kids.com/Japan/interesting_facts.htm
1. Honshu is the largest with an area of 231,000km2.
2.Japan is over 70% mountainous with approximately 18% of the land mass being suitable for settlement.
3.Japan is located in an area known as The Ring of Fire in the Pacific. This is an area with many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Japan is very seismically active with over 1,500 earthquakes per year.
http://www.facts-about-japan.com/
1. The island of Honshu is the largest island of Japan and is 231,000km2.
2. Japan is over 70% mountainous with approximately 18% of the land mass being suitable for settlement.
3.Japan is located in an area known as The Ring of Fire in the Pacific. This is an area with many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Japan is very seismically active with over 1,500 earthquakes per year.
http://www.facts-about-japan.com/
1.) Japan’s land mass is roughly the size of the U.S. state of California, and although the country’s geography is 70% mountainous, it has population of about 127 million, or about half that of the U.S.
2.) There are many regional Japanese dialects, and some are so localized that Japanese persons not from those areas may have a difficult time understanding them.
3.)The Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo Japan is the world’s largest wholesale fish market. Tsukiji handles over 2,000 metric tons of seafood per day, and is a popular tourist attraction among foreign visitors.
http://www.essential-japan-guide.com/interesting-facts-about-japan.html
1) Apart from the four main islands, Japan is composed of over 3,000 smaller islands.
2) There are thousands of words from English in modern Japanese language (often not understood by older generations), and the number keeps increasing fast.
3) Fortune cookies are not a Chinese invention, but a Japanese one going back to 19th-century Kyoto and linked to the tradition of omikuji. Fortune cookies have since become very popular in the USA, especially in Chinese restaurants, hence its false association with China. The first American version of the cookie was introduced around 1900 by Makoto Hagiwara of Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.
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