JAPAN
Caleb.P
Geography/Climate
The red circle on the Japan flag represents the sun.
Japan is a country of islands and is slightly smaller than California. 73% of Japan is made of mountains. And the highest mountain is Mount Fuji.
The climate varies from warm in south to cool temperature in north.
Language
Japan's official language is Japanese or Nihongo 日本語. They use a lot of Chinese characters called kanji, along with katakana and hiragana.
Celebration
One of the celebration is Girl's day. It is referred as The Doll Festival. This is a day
to celebrate the health and happiness for young girls. They eat clam soup and rice cake called Mochi.
Another celebration is palanquins, carts lifted by people. It is carried to the shrine where people perform for the god and compete against other palanquin carriers.
Food
The soup is made with dashi soup stock, miso paste, a block of tofu and chopped green onions.
Religion
There are two main religions, Shintoism and Buddhism. They both play important roles in
celebrations and in the Japanese way of life. The Shinto teaches people to respect nature and to remember the heroes from the past.
Art, Music and Dance
Origami is art of paper folding. The most common form is paper crane. You start with a square sheet of paper and fold it a certain way. Here is what it looks like.
Another form of art is Kabuki. It is traditional popular drama with singing and dancing performed in a highly stylized manner.
Famous People
Ei-ichi Negishi (1935-...) is a Japanese chemist who won the 2010 Nobel Prize for chemistry.
Ei-ichi Negishi shared the prize with Richard Heck and Akira Suzuki. They won by connecting Carbon particles with chemicals.
Other Interesting Information
Sources
Celebration Japan
World book.com
Japan 101
Kid info it's.com