Maps of Japan (日本の地図, にほんのちず, nihon no chizu)

Before I start to write about more events and places in Japan, I thought I should take the time and provide some more background on Japan's geography.  I have mentioned places I've been to or where things are, but for most people reading I'm sure these are nothing more than a name.  So I'm going to take some time now to show some maps and explain a bit about Japan's geography.  Not only the general background, but also give a focus on the Kanto / Tokyo area.  As I live there and most of my travels and experiences happen in Tokyo, I'll not only have more places, but also smaller areas than compared to other areas I might only visit for a short time.  I will be getting into more detail with Tokyo's map and layout so people can get a good idea of where my small trips are, but first for the basics.

Basic map of Japan with the 4 main islands labeled. [1]

The main part of Japan is basically comprised of 4 main islands: Hokkaido (北海道, ほっかいどう), Honshu (本州, ほんしゅう), Shikoku (四国, しこく) and Kyushu (九州, きゅうしゅう).  To give a sense of scale of the actual size of Japan as it is often confused:

Close to the length of the United States, but very thin hence being a very small land area. [2]

Below these 4 main islands are the islands of Okinawa.  I live on Honshu, which contains most of the famous cities of Japan, such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Yokohama among others.  Honshu contains somewhere near 80% of the 127 million people in Japan.  Here's a map showing the major cities in Japan which should provide a good overview of famous spots in Japan and what each of the main islands have.

It was much harder to find a decent map of cities in Japan than you would think. [3]

These 4 islands are further broken down into regions and prefectures.  Honshu is the only island that is broken into regions, due to its larger size (land and population) than the others.  The regions are: Tōhoku (東北, とうほく), Kantō (関東, かんとう), Chūbu (中部, ちゅうぶ), Kansai (関西, かんさい) and Chūgoku 中国, ちゅうごく).  Everything is broken up into prefectures (the state / province equivalent for Japan) and prefectures are the main usage, not regions.  Everything that is not the main cities of Japan is identified by its town name and then prefecture.  There are a total of 47 prefectures in Japan.

[4]

As for my place in this map, I live in Tokyo, but work outside of it.  I work as an ALT or Assistant Language Teacher.  I have taught English at Junior and Senior High Schools in Saitama.  This is the prefecture directly north of Tokyo about an hour or more depending on where in the prefecture.

As you'll notice, Tokyo is its own prefecture, but this is as its own special classification.  Most prefectures take on the suffix 'ken' (県, けん).  Tokyo however uses 'to' (都, と).  Tokyo basically drops the prefecture in its name when explaining location and is divided by wards (ku, 区, く) for the 23 wards in Tokyo.  Inside of those wards are towns and cities (yes, Tokyo is basically cities within a city that's how massive the metropolis is).

The wards of Tokyo and some famous places within Tokyo. [5]

Some of the more well known wards are Shinjuku, which has the city government along with the skyscraper district being one of the busiest places in Tokyo.  Shinjuku station is the busiest station in the world.  Chiyoda has the Imperial Palace.  Taito is home to Asakusa, one of the most famous spots in Tokyo, known for it's traditional area of Senso-ji and Kaminarimon.  Ueno is also famous for its park and zoo inside of the park as well as many museums in the area.  Shibuya has Yoyogi Park, which is one of the largest in Tokyo and was the site of the Olympic Village during Japan's Olympics.  Shibuya is also a famous spot for fashion, particularly among the young and a popular nightlife area.  Lastly, Minato has Tokyo Tower, the famous Eiffel Tower look alike and Roppongi, which is known for being the popular area for nightlife and foreigners.  This should hopefully give you a good idea of where my trips and experiences within Tokyo are taking me now.

I also hope that this post helps give people an idea of where I am now when I add new posts.  I will also try to add more information in the beginning of my posts to give a better idea of its location and think of a more creative solution to showing locations.  In the meantime, I will put up a map of places and prefectures that I've been to already.

The dots are of cities and major places in Japan I have been.  These include from left to right: Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Mt. Fuji, Yokohama, Kamakura, Tokyo and Nikko.

If you see a place I've been to that you're interested in, leave me a comment here or a message and I can write about it or answer questions.  This includes places I've been to as a study abroad student and a previous trip to Japan, so not all of the places I've been to this time around.  I'll try and update it as I visit and write more of Japan.  If I can figure it out, my plan is to have these maps on a seperate page and make the places I've been to on the map linkable to entries I've written about.  In the meantime feel free to use this as a reference when trying to figure out where I've been.

References:

1. "Map of Japan," Japanese Lifestyle.
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/map_of_japan.html.

2. "Teaching About Japan: Relative Size and Location," UCLA.
http://www.international.ucla.edu/eas/japan/geography/overlay1.htm.

3. Randy Johnson, "All Japan Map," Randy's Japan Page.
http://ease.com/~randyj/japanmap.htm.

4. "Regions and Prefectures of Japan," Wikipedia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Regions_and_Prefectures_of_Japan.svg/2000px-Regions_and_Prefectures_of_Japan.svg.png.

5. "Interactive Tokyo Map," TokyoMap.com.
http://www.tokyomap.com/.