Day 1 Intro to Japan

Day 1 Introduction to Japan

Geography shaped life in Japan. 

Geography Shapes Life in Japan 

• The islands of Japan are really just the tops of undersea mountains and volcanoes, sticking up out of the ocean.

• Those mountains, as you can see on the map, cover nearly all of Japan.

Multiple Choice

What is Japan's land made out of?

• Beautiful flat lands as far as you can see.

• Undersea mountains and volcanoes, sticking up out of the ocean

Farming

• Only about 20 percent of the land is flat. Because it is difficult to live and farm on mountain slopes, most Japanese people have always lived in those flat areas, the coastal plains. 

Multiple Choice

Where did the people live?

• On the top of the mountains

• On the coast

• On the flat land next to the coast.

Food

• In addition to the mountains and the lack of flat land, the nearness of the sea shaped the lives of Japanese people.

• Naturally, they turned to the sea for food. They learned to prepare all kinds of seafood, from eel to shark to octopus to seaweed.

• As a result, seafood has been a key part of the Japanese diet for thousands of years. 

Open Ended

Why did the Japanese eat seafood?

Separation Brings Own Traditions

• The Japanese were separated from the other people of Asia.

• The Japanese to develop their own culture. They created a religion and a social structure very different from those in other parts of Asia.

• This separation has always been an important part of Japanese society. 

Japan's Short Distance

• Japan isn’t totally isolated, however.

• Korea is only about 100 miles away from Japan. China is about 400 miles away.

• Those short distances eventually allowed the older Korean and Chinese cultures to influence the new culture of Japan. 

Multiple Choice

What two countries eventually influenced Japan?

• China and Russia

• Korea and Russia

• Korea and China

Open Ended

What is the main reason that Japan had a different culture than its neighbors?