Thursday 21 February 2013

A Map of Japan


Card no 403 – Mujito   - JP -  368269
Map of Japan
Country Card Sent From: Japan
Place Card Sender Lives: Yokosuka
Date Received: 18th February 2013
Distance Travelled:  5,939  miles
Time Taken:  7 days
 (Click to enlarge)
Japan (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国   Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally "[the] State of Japan") is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which together comprise about ninety-seven per cent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. Honshū's Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

Yokosuka (横須賀市 Yokosuka-shi?) is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of June 2012, the city has an estimated population of 414,960 and a population density of 4,120 people per km².  Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in Greater Tokyo, 12th in the Kantō region.

The area around present-day Yokosuka city has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found stone tools and shell middens from the Japanese Paleolithic period and ceramic shards from the Jōmon and Kofun periods at numerous locations in the area. During the Heian period, local warlord Muraoka Tamemichi established Kinugasa Castle in 1063.

The stamps are lovely -

4 comments:

  1. Do you like Japan and its culture? I am amazed since I found Haruki Murakami's books. Another one I admire is a book "number9dream" by David Mitchell (he is from UK!)

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    1. I haven't read 'Number9dream' but I will do now! I loved his book "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" (2010) which uis also set in Japasn - in the days when the Dutch were only allowed to trade by living on a man-made offshore island - they were not allowed to set foot on Jaspanese soil.

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    2. His "Cloud Atlas" seems to be interesting too. I have it stated in my "to-read" list, there also is a movie by this book. "number9dream" is similar to Haruki Murakami's books - with these pieces of narration, forming the story and small stories, interlacing and overlaying... And what are you reading at the moment?

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    3. Carlos Ruiz Zafon "The Angel's Game". I read his "Shadow of the Wind" last year and thoroughly enjiyed it. I'm also reading the children's book "Five children and It" which I missed out on when I was a child!

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