Japan is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, set apart from the rest of Asia by the Sea of Japan. It's about the size of Montana or California. Although Japan has thousands of islands, its four main ones are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. The countries closest to Japan are Korea, Russia, and China.

Because of its length, Japan's climate varies dramatically. The climate in most of the large cities is subtropic, and it has four seasons, like we do in Colorado. They have a rainy season (typhoon season) in the late summer. In some of the northern islands, they get a lot of snow in the winter, but in other places, January can be up to 62 degrees.

Japan's cities are some of the most populated in the world. Most of the population lives along the coast. Its population is about 125,000,000, and around two million of those are foreign students. About half of the people who live in Japan that are not Japanese are Korean.

Most of Japan is rocky hills and mountains covered in trees. A lot of the mountains in Japan are active volcanoes. Also, Japan is right on top of a major fault line. There are many fault lines running down Japan.

Japan--Sophie Macie