Fun fact#201
Japan has more than 6,800 islands
Japan is an archipelago of over 6,800 islands, though four of them hold nearly all of the population.
Japan
An archipelago of 6,800 islands that treats punctuality as a form of politeness.
18 entries · 8 stories, 10 fun facts
Japan at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- Tokyo
- Currency
- Japanese yen (JPY)
- Official language
- Japanese
- Climate
- Humid subtropical over most of the country, cold and snowy in Hokkaido, a June–July rainy season almost everywhere.
- Best time to go
- Late March–May and October–November
- Time zone
- UTC+9, no daylight saving
- Driving side
- Left
- Plugs and voltage
- Type A / B, 100 V
Worth knowing: At 100 V, Japan has the lowest mains voltage in the world. Most modern chargers cope; hairdryers and kettles may not.
Planning a trip to Japan
A day-by-day itinerary, and the guides that cover the decisions you make before you go.
Japan is an archipelago of more than 6,800 islands, though four of them carry almost the entire population. It also has more vending machines per head than anywhere else, a national forecast for cherry blossom, and a hotel that has been run by the same family since the year 705.
The entries here cover both the postcard and the practical: why Kyoto still has 1,600 temples, why the upper slopes of Mount Fuji are privately owned, what actually happens in a bathhouse before you get in the water, and why the last train home is a genuine social institution. If one idea runs through all of it, it is that Japanese travel rewards people who read the sign rather than the guidebook.
Entries from Japan
Fun fact#203
Tokyo's rush hour has pushers
Station staff known as oshiya are still employed on the busiest Tokyo lines to help commuters fit inside the doors.
Fun fact#205
Japan's vending machines outnumber people in some towns
With roughly one machine for every 30 people, Japan sells everything from hot corn soup to fresh eggs on the street, day and night.
Fun fact#207
Kyoto was spared the bomb
Kyoto was removed from the atomic target list partly because of its cultural importance, which is why 1,600 temples still stand.
Fun fact#209
Cherry blossom has an official forecast
Japanese weather services publish a sakura front each spring, tracking the bloom as it sweeps north from Okinawa to Hokkaido.
Fun fact#211
Mount Fuji is privately owned above 3,360 m
The upper slopes of Fuji legally belong to a Shinto shrine, a claim confirmed by Japan's courts.
Fun fact#213
Japan has a rabbit island
Okunoshima was once a secret poison gas factory. Today hundreds of feral rabbits hop across the ruins.
Story#339
The last train to Kyoto
We ran the length of the platform and made it with four seconds to spare. A salaryman already inside held the door with his briefcase, then bowed slightly, and neither of us mentioned it for the next forty minutes.
Story#342
Vending machine dinner
Everything closed at eleven and we ate hot corn soup and a boiled egg from a machine on a residential street. It was the least romantic meal of the trip and the one we still talk about.
Story#346
The convenience store test
A local told us you can judge a country by its convenience stores. We ate egg sandwiches from a Tokyo konbini at midnight and understood immediately what she meant.
Story#349
Cherry blossom in the rain
The petals came down with the rain and stuck to everything. Nobody left the park. People simply opened umbrellas over their picnic blankets and carried on.
Story#352
Onsen etiquette lesson
An older man wordlessly demonstrated the whole sequence: stool, bucket, scrub, rinse, then in. Then he nodded once, satisfied, and did not look at me again.
Story#356
Silence at the temple gate
The cemetery has two hundred thousand graves under cedar trees. A monk walked past at six in the morning and the only sound in a kilometre of forest was his sandals.
Story#360
The ramen counter
Eight seats, one man, no menu in English and a paper form with boxes to tick. He looked at my form, changed one box, and handed back the pen. He was right.
Story#362
Cycling Shimanami
Seventy kilometres over six bridges between islands, with a blue line painted on the road the whole way. You cannot get lost, which leaves you free to look at the sea.
Fun fact#393
Tea ceremony is a form of meditation
The Japanese tea ceremony can take four hours and is judged less on the tea than on attention, hosting and restraint.
Fun fact#960
Japan has few street names
Most Japanese addresses describe blocks rather than streets, working from ward down to building number.
Fun fact#987
The world's oldest hotel is Japanese
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan has been run by the same family since the year 705, making it the oldest continuously operating hotel on record.
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