Japan

Roland R.

Government

The Japanese government consists of 3 branches. One is the Diet or executive branch which has the most power. The Diet chooses a leader or prime minister to lead the cabinet of ministers of state.

The courts are in control of judicial laws. The Supreme Court has a supreme justice and 14 other justices. They handle cases like traffic violations.

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Clothing and Food

The daily life consists of many things like the food they eat. Most families eat miso soup and rice. Miso soup means bean paste soup, and rice is a traditional food for Japanese families. Like us Japanese also have fast food stores like McDonald’s.They also cook foods on a teppan. They call these foods teppanyaki.

The traditional clothing are the kimonos, which are silk dresses held up with a belt or an obi. Now they are worn for special occasions. But casual clothes are like ours, like shirts and jeans.

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Festivals and Celebrations

There are many celebrations. One is the Tanabata festival. This is held on July 7. In this celebration they put their wishes on a piece of paper that they hang from a tree. One very important celebration is the New Year. They eat noodles called Tashi-Koshi. Then near midnight they ring the Buddhist temple bell 108 times which takes almost an hour.

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Location, Population, and Money

Japan is located in Asia. It is the easternmost country in Asia. It is also an island near China. Its capital is Tokyo which is the most populated and is the biggest city.

Yen is the type of money that is used in Japan. They have bills like dollars which are 10,000; 5,000; 2,000 and 1,000 yen and coins which are 1 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, 100 yen, and 500 yen.

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Schools and Art

The schools are most like ours. They go to school in April when they’re six. They learn regular subjects. They also learn subjects like sewing and cooking. Some have English classes too.

The arts they learn are called shodo. One is calligraphy which is basically writing characters or letters. Others are writing haikus which are poems about expressing deep feelings and has 17 syllables.

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MusicOne band that mixed traditional music and power rock music is the Toshida Brothers. They wear hakamas which are kimono over trousers. They play instruments called shamisens which is a 3 stringed instrument, which is usually strummed very aggressively instead of plucked. They play both traditional music with the shamisen and play rock music with guitar-like sounds instead of the shamisen sounds too.

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Tokyo Tower

The Tokyo Tower is like the Eiffel Tower. It stands 13 meters taller than it though. It was built in 1958. Its observatory is 250 meters tall and sometimes Mt. Fuji could be seen. There are attractions on the bottom floor of the tower.

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Landmarks/Historical Places

One landmark is the Zojoji Temple. It is right next to the Tokyo Tower. It was built in 1393 and moved in 1598. One man named Tokugawa Leyasu moved to Tokyo, and the temple became the Tokugawa family temple. Inside the temple the family crest is still on its floors.

Another landmark is Japan’s largest mountain Mount Fuji. It stands at 3776 meters tall! Mount Fuji is also a dormant volcano that erupted almost 300 years ago in 1708. Mount Fuji is in the middle of the border of Yamanashi and Shizouka.

Mt Fuji

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Writing Japanese

Kanji is a way to write in Japanese which is basically meaning written characters. They use the structure of the object to look close to what the word looks like.

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Sports Somewhere in Fall schools all

around Japan celebrate a day called Sports Day. On this day they play odd and original games. One is called pan-kui kyoso. They have to race, but they also have to take bread tied by strings off without their hands. Tamaire is another game which there are 2 teams red and white. They have to catch beanbags by a large pole with basket at the end of it.

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Recreations

One famous recreation in Japan is jump roping and sometimes even counting as a sport. Jump roping is known all over Japan and lots of people love to jump rope. There are even competitions. Another recreation are Yo-Yos. Most children love these toys because there are new versions that make hard tricks easy.

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