Japanese geographic

This month I have been learning about Japan. Recently I have been learning about traditional clothing, silk, fairytales, historical events like Hiroshima, folk stories, robotics, and how to draw manga. Today I am writing about Japanese geography and culture.


How many islands are there?

There is a whopping total of 6,852 islands in Japan, but the confusing bit is that only 430 are inhabited. The main four islands are Honshu, Shikoku, Hokkaido and Kyushu. The smallest is Shikoku and the largest is Honshu.


Tokyo

the population of Tokyo is 13.62 million. This capital is such a over crowded city that they have people that stuff people into people trains and the cheapest hotel you could stay in is like a box here is a picture.  






Are there any active  volcanoes?


Yes there  are 110 active volcanoes in Japan. The most famous is mount Fuji. Mount Fuji last erupted in 1707 AD nearly 300 years ago. It is said that a anonymous buddhist monk was the first person to climb mount Fuji. Women weren't aloud to climb mount Fuji until 1912    


Religion

The main religions in Japan are Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto has no god but has a spirit called Kami. Kami is happy when the  followers show interest and when treated right will bring health and business. Shinto happily coexists with Buddhism in Japan. Buddhists follow the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. He was a prince who became frustrated with his life of luxury and gave up his wealth to live a life of poverty (asceticism). he was unfulfilled by a life of poverty just as he had been by his life of wealth, so he decided to search for a 'middle road' and started meditating. he meditated until he was enlightened, from then he was called the buddha which means enlightened one. Buddhists do not follow a god but meditate in search of enlightenment.


Native plants and animals


The top 3 native plants in Japan are Japanese pine [Matsu,] Hydrangea [Ajisai] and shibazakura. Japan loves wildlife but due to the fact of over population there is 136 endangered species in Japan. Japan is the home of stella sea eagle,

meditation


Today I have started to meditate I am going to try and meditate for 5 minutes every day. 

Hiroshima

Hiroshima is a city in Japan that was bombed in world war 2.

Who bombed Hiroshima and why?

The Americans bombed Hiroshima after Japan bombed pearl harbour. the atomic bombs little boy and fat man were invented by J. Robert Oppenheimer . The Americans chose Hiroshima because it was a large military base.

How many people died during the bombing of Hiroshima?

the estimate death toll was 265,000 people out of a population of 300,000.


What is it like today?

Today Hiroshima is like a normal city but with a few ruins many people live there normally with the population of 1,196,274 people.

Where is Hiroshima?

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima prefecture and the largest city in Chugoku region of western Honshu the largest island of Japan. 

Leatherback turtles

Today I went to the st. Agnes museum  and saw a stuffed leatherback turtle it had died from swallowing a plastic bag thinking it was a jellyfish. I found that very sad. here are ten facts about the leatherback turtle.




1. The leatherback turtle is the largest sea turtle
2. They can weigh up to 2,000 pounds
3, Leatherbacks are the deepest-diving turtle.they can dive up to 4,2000 feet.
4.  Leatherbacks are world travellers, traveling an astounding 10,000 miles or more each year in search of jellyfish. They will travel the whole pacific  ocean from Asia to the west coast of the US to forage off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California.   
5. They are endangered because they often eat plastic bags and balloons thinking they are jellyfish
6. they can be up to 2 and a half metres long
7. Leatherbacks feed on jellyfish
8. They are the largest marine reptile
9. They live in the Caribbean
10. They have a average life of 45 years

history of silk

Today I am writing about silk, I will focus on the production of silk, the history of silk, the silk roads, and how the Chinese secret of silk spread across the world. 

The legend

Legend is that Empress Hsi Ling Shi, wife of Emperor Huang Ti (also called the Yellow Emperor), was the first person to accidentally discover silk as weavable fibre.  According to legend the Empress was sipping tea under a mulberry tree when a cocoon fell in her tea an started unraveling. It was then that she found that silk was a weavable and strong fibre.

How they make it

They make silk by raising the silkworms until they're in their cocoons and then put all off the cocoons in boiling hot water to kill the silkworms inside then they weave 7 to 8 strings of silk together. After that workers have to painstakingly collect all of the clumps and debris.  Watch a video about how silk is made here. 

How it came to Europe

The Roman Empire knew of and traded in silk. Silk came to Europe in CE 550 when monks working for the emperor Justinian smuggled silkworm eggs to Europe in hollow bamboo walking canes.


Silk roads

The silk road was the ancient trading route from Europe to Asia. It has taken on a mythological status and the reality is unclear. For example historians cannot agree on length and route some say 4000 miles some say 7000 miles. One thing we do know is it is over 10,000 years old because silk was found in Egyptian tombs, a long way away from were it would have been made in China. The silk road went from china to the Mediterranean, and was probably not just a one road but a network of roads used by merchants and traders. Although the Romans loved silk and bought it from the Chinese

they thought it grew on trees like cotton. This was because they had never met the Chinese . All their trading was done through middlemen who would take the silk from the Chinese and give it to the Romans. A man called Ying Yang was sent to visit Rome but was put off when he was told it would take two years to get there! When he got back to china he found out that it was a lie told to him by the middlemen because they did not want to lose their place in the business. The silk roads were in my opinion like a giant market were everyone would have something to trade and exchange for goods. As well as silk the Chinese also traded teas, salt, sugar, porcelain and spices. Other travellers would trade cotton, ivory, wool, gold and silver. 

Marco Polo

He learned the mercantile trade from his father and uncle. Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China [see Europeans in Medieval China.] 

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Mulberries 

 Silk

Silkworm, Bombyx Mori and silk cocoon