PHYSICAL FEATURES OF

JAPAN

Japan is part of the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is the name used to describe a band of active volcanoes. The band circles around the edges of the Pacific Ocean.

SNOW MOUNTAINS

Hokkaido the northern most island is Japan's wild frontier. Colonised just 150 years ago, and until then the homeland of the aboriginal Ainu people, its landscape is radically un-Japanese - barely a temple or gravel Zen garden graces its entire 84,000 sparsely populated square kilometres.

Hokkaido MOUNTAIN

Hokkaido lake

Right at the tip of Hokkaido, deep in a lush tract of forest known as the Shiretoko peninsula, is a true natural wonder: the thermal waterfall of Kamuiwakka-no-taki. Translated from the local Ainu language, as Water of the Gods. Along the way, it splashes from one turquoise rock pool into another, filling the woodlands with steam and haze and the faint aroma of sulphur.

ICE Hotel in Hokkaido

Tea fields in the valleys around Mount Fuji stretch for miles on Japan's main Honshu Island. Antioxidants in Japanese green tea, which is harvested from the uppermost shoots and buds of the Camellia sinensis plant, have been linked to numerous health benefits.

MOUNT FUJI

Mt. Fuji is a sacred mountain. The people of Japan climb the mountain to show their respect.

Shiraito falls

Rainbow bridge - Tokyo

Hot springs

Kyushu island

The Yamanashi region of Japan is famous for its fruit growing.