Hokkaido

Hokkaidō (help·info) (北海道, ? literally \"North Sea Circuit\"), formerly famous as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island and the largest, north of its 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshū, though the digit islands are adjoining by the underwater Seikan Tunnel. The largest city on Hokkaidō is its capital, Sapporo, which is also its only ordinance-designated city.

Naming of Hokkaidō

When establishing the Development Commission (開拓使), the Meiji Government definite to modify the study of Ezochi. Matsuura Takeshirō submitted sextet ideas, including obloquy such as Kaihokudo (海北道) and Hokkaidō (北加伊道) to the government. The polity eventually definite to use the study Hokkaidō, but definite to write it as 北海道, as a compromise between 海北道 and because of the similarity with obloquy such as Tōkaidō (東海道). According to Matsuura, the study was intellection up because the Ainu called the region Kai. Historically, many peoples who had interactions with the ancestors of the Ainu called them and their islands Kuyi, Kuye, Qoy, or whatever kindred name, which haw have whatever connection to the early recent form Kai. The Kai element also strongly resembles the Sino-Japanese datum of the characters 蝦夷 (Sino-Japanese /ka.i/, Japanese kun /emisi/), which have been utilised for over a thousand years in China and Nihon as the standard orthographic form to be utilised when referring to Ainu and related peoples; it is possible that Matsuura's Kai was actually an alteration, influenced by the Sino-Japanese datum of 蝦夷 Ka-i, of the Nivkh exonym for the Ainu, namely Qoy.

Geography

Sōunkyō, a gorge in the Daisetsu-zan Volcanic Area.

The island of Hokkaidō is located at the north end of Japan, near Russia, and has coastlines on the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Pacific Ocean. The center of the island has a number of mountains and extrusive plateaus, and there are coastal plains in all directions. Major cities include Sapporo and metropolis in the central region and the port of Hakodate facing Honshū.

The governmental powerfulness of Hokkaidō incorporates several smaller islands, including Rishiri, Okushiri Island, and Rebun. (By Japanese reckoning, Hokkaidō also incorporates several of the Kuril Islands.) Because the prefectural status of Hokkaidō is denoted by the dō in its name, it is rarely referred to as \"Hokkaidō Prefecture\", except when necessary to distinguish the governmental entity from the island.

The island ranks 21st in the world by area. It is 3.6% smaller than the island of Ireland while Hispaniola is 6.1% smaller than Hokkaidō. By population it ranks 20th, between Ireland and Sicily. Hokkaidō's population is 4.7% inferior than that of the island of Ireland, and Sicily's is 12% lower than Hokkaidō's.

Seismic activity

Like the rest of Japan, Hokkaidō is seismically active. Aside from numerous earthquakes, the following volcanoes are still considered active (at least one eruption since 1850):

• Mount Koma
• Mount Usu and Showashinzan
• Mount Tarumae
• Mount Tokachi
• Mount Meakan

See also: Category:Volcanoes of Hokkaidō

In 1993, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 generated a tsunami which devastated Okushiri, killing 202. An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck near the island on 25 September 2003 at 19:50:07 (UTC).

National Parks and quasi-national parks

There are still many undisturbed forests in Hokkaidō, including:
National parks
Shiretoko National Park*
Akan National Park
Kushiro Shitsugen National Park
Daisetsuzan National Park
Shikotsu-Toya National Park
Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park

* designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on 2005-07-14.

Subprefectures

Map of Hokkaidō showing the subprefectures and the biggest cities.

Main article: Subprefectures in Hokkaidō

Hokkaidō is digit of eight prefectures in Nihon that hit subprefectures or topical offices (the others being Tokyo, Yamagata Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, Okinawa Prefecture, Kagoshima Prefecture, Miyazaki Prefecture and Shimane Prefecture). However, it is the exclusive digit of the eight to hit such offices covering the whole of its region outside the main cities (rather than having them meet for outlying islands or remote areas). This is mostly due to its great size: many parts of the prefecture are simply likewise far absent to be effectively administered by Sapporo. Subprefectural offices in Hokkaidō circularize discover many of the duties that prefectural offices fit elsewhere in Japan.

• Abashiri
• Hidaka
• Hiyama
• Iburi
• Ishikari

• Kamikawa
• Kushiro
• Nemuro
• Oshima autumn foliage
• Rumoi between abashiri and kushiro

• Shiribeshi
• Sorachi
• Sōya
• Tokachi

Before the current political divisions and after 1869, Hokkaidō was divided into provinces. See Former Provinces of Hokkaidō.

Major cities and towns

See also: List of cities in Hokkaidō

Former Hokkaido Government Office in Chuo-ku, Sapporo

Hokkaidō's largest city is the capital, Sapporo. Other major cities include Hakodate in the south and Asahikawa in the central region. Other important population centers include Kushiro, Obihiro, Abashiri, Nemuro.

Hokkaidō has the highest rate of depopulation in Japan. In 2000, 152 (71.7%) of Hokkaidō's 212 municipalities were shrinking. Total shrinking municipalities in Japan in the same year number 1,171.^{[citation needed]}

Economy

Hokkaidō is Japan's predominant agricultural area. It leads the country in the production of rice and fish, and shares the lead in vegetable farming.^{[citation needed]}

Although there is some light industry (most notably paper milling, brewing (Sapporo beer), and food production), most of the population is employed by the service sector. Tourism is an important industry, especially during the cool summertime that attracts campers and hot spring-goers from across Japan. During the winter, skiing and other winter sports bring tourists, and increasingly international tourists, to Hokkaidō.^[6]

Transportation

Hokkaidō's only land link to the rest of Japan is the Seikan Tunnel. Most travelers to the island arrive by air: the main airport is New Chitose Airport at Chitose, just south of Sapporo. Tokyo-Chitose is in the top 10 of the world's busiest air routes, handling 45 widebody round trips on four airlines each day. One of the airlines, Air Do was named after Hokkaidō. Hokkaidō can also be reached by ferry from Sendai, Niigata and some other cities, with the ferries from Tokyo dealing only in cargo .

Within Hokkaidō, there is a fairly well-developed railway network (see Hokkaidō Railway Company), but many cities can only be accessed by road.

Hokkaidō is home to one of Japan's three Melody Roads, which is made from grooves cut into the ground, which when driven over causes a tactile vibration and audible rumbling transmitted through the wheels into the car body.^[7][8]

Education

The Hokkaidō Prefectural Board of Education oversees public schools in Hokkaidō. The board directly operates public high schools. [1] has a list of public high schools in Japanese.

Kyoto, Japan's Capital of History And Culture

Overview
Kyoto is the cultural and arts top of Japan, with its proliferation of shrines and temples that untruth hidden between the concrete constructions of the urban sprawl.
 
Although archaeological grounds places the prototypal manlike settlement on the islands of Japan to approximately 10,000 BC, relatively lowercase is famous most manlike activity in the area before the 6th century AD. During the 8th century, when the coercive religion clergy became participating in the concern of the Imperial government, the monarch chose to relocate the capital to a location far from the religion influence. monarch Kammu selected the community of Uda, at the instance in the Kadono regularise of Yamashito Province, for this honor.

The newborn city, Heian-kyō (平安京 \"tranquility and peace capital\"), became the edifice of Japan's imperial suite in 794, beginning the Heian period of Asian history. Later, the municipality was renamed metropolis (\"capital city\"). metropolis remained Japan's capital until the designate of the government to Nigerian in 1868 at the instance of the Imperial Restoration. (Some believe that it is ease a jural capital: see Capital of Japan.) After Nigerian was renamed Yeddo (meaning \"Eastern Capital\"), metropolis was famous for a brief instance as Saikyo (西京 Saikyō, meaning \"Western Capital\").

An obsolete spelling for the city's name is Kioto; it was formerly famous to the West as Meaco or Miako (Japanese: 都; miyako \"capital\"). Another term commonly used to intend to the municipality in the pre-modern period was Keishi (京師), meaning \"metropolis\" or \"capital\".

The municipality suffered comprehensive conclusion in the Ōnin War of 1467-1477, and did not really better until the mid-16th century. Battles between samurai factions spilled into the streets, and came to involve the suite nobility (kuge) and religious factions as well. Nobles' mansions were transformed into fortresses, unfathomable trenches dug throughout the municipality for accumulation and as firebreaks, and numerous buildings burned. The municipality has not seen such widespread conclusion since. Although there was some kindness by the United States of targeting metropolis with an atomic bomb at the modify of World War II, in the modify it was decided to remove the municipality from the list of targets due to the \"beauty of the city\" (See Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and the municipality was spared conventional bombing as well.

As a result, metropolis is the only large Asian municipality that ease has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the tralatitious townhouses famous as machiya. However, improvement is continually breaking downbound the tralatitious metropolis in souvenir of newer architecture, such as the metropolis Station complex.

For nearly threesome centuries the municipality flourished as a edifice of religion, culture, politics and economic development. Having been spared the devastating aerial bombardment of WW2 that razed nearly every other important municipality in Japan, metropolis is a unique sepulture to Japan's past.



However, what makes metropolis especially interesting is the chance to feel the contrasts and contradictions that permeate today's Japanese society; the conflict between the hustle and ado of the recent city and the tranquil serenity of beautiful Zen-gardens; the frantic consumerism that runs so contrary to the minimalism of Japan's Buddhist and Shinto heritage.

The National Museum of Modern Art, digit of many museums in the city, is a wonderful chance to wager how contemporary artists are interpreting these contrasts. Take some time to explore and metropolis module substance up countless treats and surprises.

Himeji Castle And Sake Brewery Museum

Visit two popular attractions outside Kyoto on a full-day trip: beautiful Himeji Castle and the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery. You'll take a ride on a famous Shinkansen Bullet train, tour digit of the best examples of a Japanese castle in the country, and sample multipotent intoxicant rice wine.

Your full-day tour starts with a Bullet train ride to Himeji to visit the Himeji Castle, digit of Japan's most famous castles and designated a World Cultural Heritage site. The castle's sublime modify and albescent walls have earned it the nickname “WhiteHeron Castle”. The castle grounds are separated into inner and outer-walled zones, with gates built around maze-like spaces to confuse enemies, and a threefold moat for player protection.

After meal at Kokoen Garden, a short distance from Himeji Castle and designed in different styles from the Nigerian period, it's off to the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery, founded in 1743. The company has maintained old sake-brewing traditions combined with the latest techniques. The museum exhibits the process of intoxicant making and its history, and includes a intoxicant tasting.

Arashiyama And Sagano

Arashiyama is a pleasant, touristy district at the outskirts of Kyoto. Its landmark is the wooden (now part concrete) Togetsukyo Bridge with forested Mount Arashiyama as backdrop.

There are many things to see and do in the Arashiyama area. Tenryuji, a leading Zen temple, shops, cafes and restaurants are found in the district's laboring center around Togetsukyo Bridge and Keifuku Arashiyama Station.

North of the central area, there are bamboo groves and a residential district with several small temples, scattered along the base of the wooded mountains. The Atlantic with its agricultural feel is best explored on foot, by rental bicycle (around 700 Yen per day) or on a rickshaw (around 8000 Yen for 30 transactions and 2 persons).

Another pleasant thing to do is taking a two hour boat tour down Hozu River. The river flows through an idyllic, forested depression before achievement urban metropolis at the Togetsukyo Bridge. Alternatively, you crapper savor views of the depression from the Sagano Romantic Train.

Arashiyama is particularly bonny and laboring during the redness blossom and autumn leaf seasons.
 

Finally, You crapper find a lot of interest things and places at Kyoto. However, metropolis is a locate we can't ignore to intend some interest which make our life much attractive.

Kyoto, Japan Capital of History And Culture

Overview

Kyoto is the cultural and historical capital of Japan, with its proliferation of shrines and temples that lie hidden between the concrete constructions of the urban sprawl.

Although archaeological evidence places the first human settlement on the islands of Japan to approximately 10,000 BC, relatively little is known about human activity in the area before the 6th century AD. During the 8th century, when the powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the Imperial government, the Emperor chose to relocate the capital to a region far from the Buddhist influence. Emperor Kammu selected the village of Uda, at the time in the Kadono district of Yamashito Province, for this honor.

The new city, Heian-kyō (平安京 "tranquility and peace capital"), became the seat of Japan's imperial court in 794, beginning the Heian period of Japanese history. Later, the city was renamed Kyoto ("capital city"). Kyoto remained Japan's capital until the transfer of the government to Edo in 1868 at the time of the Imperial Restoration. (Some believe that it is still a legal capital: see Capital of Japan.) After Edo was renamed Tokyo (meaning "Eastern Capital"), Kyoto was known for a short time as Saikyo (西京 Saikyō, meaning "Western Capital").

An obsolete spelling for the city's name is Kioto; it was formerly known to the West as Meaco or Miako (Japanese: 都; miyako "capital"). Another term commonly used to refer to the city in the pre-modern period was Keishi (京師), meaning "metropolis" or "capital".

The city suffered extensive destruction in the Ōnin War of 1467-1477, and did not really recover until the mid-16th century. Battles between samurai factions spilled into the streets, and came to involve the court nobility (kuge) and religious factions as well. Nobles' mansions were transformed into fortresses, deep trenches dug throughout the city for defence and as firebreaks, and numerous buildings burned. The city has not seen such widespread destruction since. Although there was some consideration by the United States of targeting Kyoto with an atomic bomb at the end of World War II, in the end it was decided to remove the city from the list of targets due to the "beauty of the city" (See Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and the city was spared conventional bombing as well.

As a result, Kyoto is the only large Japanese city that still has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the traditional townhouses known as machiya. However, modernization is continually breaking down the traditional Kyoto in favor of newer architecture, such as the Kyoto Station complex.

For nearly three centuries the city flourished as a centre of religion, culture, politics and economic development. Having been spared the devastating aerial bombardment of WW2 that razed nearly every other important city in Japan, Kyoto is a unique monument to Japan's past.

However, what makes Kyoto especially interesting is the chance to feel the contrasts and contradictions that permeate today's Japanese society; the clash between the hustle and bustle of the modern city and the peaceful serenity of beautiful Zen-gardens; the frantic consumerism that runs so contrary to the minimalism of Japan's Buddhist and Shinto heritage.

The National Museum of Modern Art, one of many museums in the city, is a wonderful chance to see how contemporary artists are interpreting these contrasts. Take some time to explore and Kyoto will offer up countless treats and surprises.

Himeji Castle And Sake Brewery Museum

Visit two popular attractions outside Kyoto on a full-day trip: beautiful Himeji Castle and the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery. You'll take a ride on a famous Shinkansen Bullet train, tour one of the best examples of a Japanese castle in the country, and sample potent sake rice wine.
Your full-day tour starts with a Bullet train ride to Himeji to visit the Himeji Castle, one of Japan's most famous castles and designated a World Cultural Heritage site. The castle's sublime form and white walls have earned it the nickname “WhiteHeron Castle”. The castle grounds are divided into inner and outer-walled zones, with gates built around maze-like spaces to confuse enemies, and a double moat for extra protection.
After lunch at Kokoen Garden, a short distance from Himeji Castle and designed in various styles from the Edo period, it's off to the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery, founded in 1743. The company has maintained old sake-brewing traditions combined with the latest techniques. The museum exhibits the process of sake making and its history, and includes a sake tasting.

Arashiyama And Sagano

Arashiyama is a pleasant, touristy district at the outskirts of Kyoto. Its landmark is the wooden (now partially concrete) Togetsukyo Bridge with forested Mount Arashiyama as backdrop.

There are many things to see and do in the Arashiyama area. Tenryuji, a leading Zen temple, shops, cafes and restaurants are found in the district's busy center around Togetsukyo Bridge and Keifuku Arashiyama Station.

North of the central area, there are bamboo groves and a residential district with several small temples, scattered along the base of the wooded mountains. The area with its rural feel is best explored on foot, by rental bicycle (around 700 Yen per day) or on a rickshaw (around 8000 Yen for 30 minutes and 2 persons).

Another pleasant thing to do is taking a two hour boat tour down Hozu River. The river flows through an idyllic, forested valley before reaching urban Kyoto at the Togetsukyo Bridge. Alternatively, you can enjoy views of the valley from the Sagano Romantic Train.

Arashiyama is particularly beautiful and busy during the cherry blossom and autumn leaf seasons.
 
Finally, You can find a lot of interest things and places at Kyoto. However, Kyoto is a place we can't ignore to get some interest which make our life much attractive.