Japan is called Nippon or Nihon in Japanese which means the land of rising sun. Its national flag, called hinomaru, displays a red sun on a white background. This flag dates back to the 17th century.

Geography
Japan is made up of four main islands and over six thousand smaller islands in the Pacific Ocean near Russia, China and Korea. Japan has many volcanic mountains. The tallest is the famous Mt.Fuji (12,388 feet). Most of these volcanoes are inactive today, but natural hot springs are still found all over Japan. Each hot spring is considered to have a different medical effect for healing the body and mind. Taking a bath in a hot spring is very popular among Japanese people.

Food
Traditional Japanese meal is accompanied by white rice, soup made from soybean paste called miso soup, and a main dish. Typical main dishes include raw or cooked fish, vegetables or grilled meat. Noodle dishes made from buckwheat (soba) or wheat (udon) are also very popular. Selecting plates to match the food is a part of Japanese culture because displaying Japanese food is considered a visual art.

Language
Japanese language has three different types of characters: Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji is adopted from China. Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic scripts which were developed in Japan. Roman characters are also used very often these days. Any of these characters are combined to make a Japanese sentence.