Japan known as Nihon or Nippon in Japanese, is a nation of islands in East Asia. Explore Japan, the “Land of the Rising Sun” the country where the past meets the future. Japanese culture stretches back millennia, yet has also been quick to adopt and created the latest modern fashions and trends.

Japan is often difficult to understand for those educated in the west. It can seem full of contradictions. Many Japanese corporations dominate their industries. Cities are as modern and high tech as anywhere else, but tumbledown wooden shacks can still be spotted next to glass fronted designer condominiums. Japan has beautiful temples and gardens which are often surrounded by garish signs and ugly buildings. The most acclaimed restaurant in the country, which costs hundreds of dollars for dinner, is a small shop located in a subway station seating less than a dozen people. In the middle of modern skyscrapers you’ll discover sliding wooden doors which lead to traditional chambers with tatami mats, shoji screens, and calligraphy, suitable for traditional tea ceremonies. These juxtapositions can seem perplexing or jarring to those used to the more uniform nature of European and North American cities, but if you let go, and accept the layered aesthetics, you’ll find interesting and surprising places throughout the country.

Japan has often been seen in the West as a land combining tradition and modernity, and many traditional structures and practices are preserved, but modern structures and practices definitely dominate your experience in Japan. Japan was the first Asian country to independently modernize, and the country continues to embrace new technologies and aesthetics, but unlike in many countries, Japan does not feel a particular need to attack or remove older technologies, structures, or practices. New things are mostly just layered beside old things. That’s not to say that Japan embraces the large scale preservation of historical structures or that people generally practice traditional ceremonies, but people generally believe that if a small number of people want to continue on a tradition or preserve a building that they own, they should be allowed to do that. In this way, development mostly happens in a piecemeal fashion, one building at a time, rather than in large redevelopment projects. Many urban blocks evolve to line up dozens of narrow buildings spanning fifty or more years of design history. Clothing styles evolve along a dozen paths at the same time rather than singular mass fashion trends. An individual that embraces a particular subculture and its fashions may alternately conform to vary different norms when working or at home, but there is little sense of conflict between these roles.

Japan’s location on islands at the outermost edge of Asia has had a profound influence on its history. Just close enough to mainland Asia, yet far enough to keep it separate, much of Japanese history has seen alternating periods of closure and openness.

Recorded Japanese history begins in the 5th century, although archaeological evidence of settlement stretches back 50,000 years and the mythical Emperor Jimmu is said to have founded the current Imperial line in the 7th century BCE. Archaeological evidence, however, has only managed to trace the Imperial line back to the Kofun Period during the 3rd to 7th centuries CE, which was also when the Japanese first had significant contact with China and Korea. Japan then gradually became a centralized state during the Asuka Period, during which Japan extensively absorbed many aspects of Chinese culture, and saw the introduction of Mahayana Buddhism and Confucianism.

The Japanese are well known for their politeness. Many Japanese are thrilled to have visitors to their country and are incredibly helpful to lost and bewildered-looking foreigners. Younger Japanese people are often extremely interested in meeting and becoming friends with foreigners as well. Do not be surprised if a Japanese person (usually of the opposite gender) approaches you in a public place and tries to initiate a conversation with you in somewhat coherent English. On the other hand, many are not used to dealing with foreigners (gaikokujin) and are more reserved and reluctant to communicate.

Visibly foreign visitors remain a rarity in many parts of Japan outside of major cities and popular sightseeing areas, and you may encounter moments when entering a shop causes the staff to seemingly panic. Don’t take this as racism or other xenophobia: they’re just afraid that you’ll try to address them in English and they’ll be embarrassed because they can’t understand or reply. A smile and a Konnichiwa (“Hello”) often helps.

Japans’ holidays 

Japan has thousands of cities and destinations. Just to name a few Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka and Sapporo these are some of the most interesting to the traveller.

For  more cities of Japan.

See Japan’s Top 3   for some sights and places held in the high esteem by the Japanese themselves

Once in Japan, you must carry your passport (or Residence Card, if applicable) with you at all times. If caught in a random check without it (and nightclub raids are not uncommon), you’ll be detained until somebody can fetch it for you. First offenders who apologize are usually let off with a warning, but theoretically you can be fined.

Japan has one of the world’s best transport systems, and getting around is usually a breeze, with the train being the favored for most locations. Although travelling around Japan is expensive, there are a variety of passes for foreigner visits that can make travel more affordable.

Japan’s excellent Shinkansen network means that flying is usually more of a luxury than a necessity. That being said, flying remains the most practical mode of reaching Japan’s outlying islands, most notably for connections from the mainland to Hokkaido, Okinawa, and service to Kyushu to and from Tokyo. Flying is also useful for getting around sparsely populated Hokkaido, as the Shinkansen network there currently ends in Hakodate.