Honshu Island - Japan's Largest Island

Japan is a country located in East Asia. It is an archipelago consisting of 6,852 islands, the largest of which are Honshu (biggest among the four), Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku.

It is bounded on the north by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kuril Islands, on the south by East China Sea, on the east by the North Pacific Ocean, and on the west by Russia, South Korea, North Korea, and China.

Japan is called the Land of the Rising Sun because its name when written in Japanese characters means "sun-origin". The term nihon used in nihonjin (Japanese) and nihonggo (Japanese language) also means sun-origin.

Japan is considered a major economic power and is the 3rd largest economy in the world asserting its influence on international trade and economics.

Japanese prefectures are the equivalent of Canadian and Philippine provinces, and the US states.

Japan has 47 prefectures which are divided into cities and towns and is headed by a governor who is elected by the people.

Some of the more famous prefectures are:

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto, Okinawa, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Fukushima, where the most destructive tsunami in Japan happened in 2011.

The rest of the prefectures are: Hokkaido, Iwata, Nagano, Niigata, Akita, Gifu, Aomori, Yumagata, Kagoshima, Hyogo, Shizuoka, Miyagi, Kochi, Okayama, Kumamoto, Shimane, Miyazaki, Tochigi, Gunma, Yamaguchi, Ibaraki, Oita, Mie, Ehime, Chiba, Aichi, Wahayama, Kyoto, Yamamashi, Iwate, Kanagawa, Fukui, Ishikawa, Nara, Shiga, Tottori, Tokushima, Saga, Kagawa.

Trains are a major means of transportation in Japan. Rail transport is served by more than 100 private companies among them is the 1) Japan Railway System (JR); 2) one freight company the JR Freight; 3) 16 major regional companies; and many other private local companies.

The system consists of 27,268 kilometers of railways spread across the country's many islands.

Japan Railways owns about 70 percent of Japan's vast railway network. The remaining 30 percent is served by other smaller private companies.

• JR Hokkaido
• JR East
• JR Central
• JR West
• JR Shikoku
• JR Kyushu
• JR Freight

Some of the major private rail companies under the JR Railway Group are:

• Kanto. Seven railway lines operate in the Kanto area
• Chubu. There is only one line in Chubu.
• Kinki. There are 5 in the Kinki area.
• Kyushu. There's one in Kyushu.

There are 7 railway lines that serve the Kanto Area route:

The Tobu Railway Line serves mostly the northern part of Tokyo. It has a total of 463.3 kilometer of railways spanning five prefectures that include Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Tochigi, and Gunma. It is the largest among the seven lines mentioned here.The Tobu Railway is important for tourists as it gives them access to the city of Nikko, the gateway to the elaborate shrine of Tokugawa Leyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Pls refer to the map here.

• Isekasi line. The train going to Isesaki stops at the following stations: 1)Wado, 2)Kuki, 3)Washnomiya, 4)Hanasaki, 5)Kazo, 6)Minami-hanyu, 7)Hanyu, 8)Kawamata, 9)Morinjimae, 10)Talebayashi, 11)Tatara, 12)Agata, 13)Fukui, 14)Tobu-izumi, 15)Ashikagashi, 16)Yashu-yamabe, 17)Niragawa, 18)Ota, 19)Hosoya, 20)Kizaki, 21)Serada, 22)Sakaimachi, 23)Goshi, 24)Shin-isesaki, and 25)Isesaki (final destination)

• Tobu Skytree
• Nikko line
• Kameido line
• Daishi line
• Tobu Urban Park line
• Sano line
• Keryu line
• Koizumi line
• Utsonomiya line
• Kinugawa line
• Tojo line
• Ogose line
• Aizu-Kinugawa line
• Aizu line
• JR line Direct Limited Express Train Station
• Chichibu line
• Hibiya line
• Chiyoda line
• Fukutoshin line
• Haresomon line
• Tokeyu Dan-en Toshi line
• Tokyo Toyoko line
• Minatomirai line
• JR line

You can avail of free WIFI access at the Tobu trains and train stations. Here is how to connect to free WIFI

The Odakyu Line serves the Airport-Shinjuku route both from Narita and Haneda Airports.

Narita Airport has two terminals, Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. The Odakyu line services passengers coming out of Terminal 2 then goes to Nippori via the Keisei skyliner and finally to Shinjuku via the JR Yamanote line.

Mt. Fuji is one of the most popular tourist spots in Japan. I guess every tourist who travels to Japan would like to visit and have a photo in this majestic wonder of nature. If you are traveling on a budget, you can take the bus from the Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal in Tokyo to Kawaguchiko Station. Here, go to this website to show you a cheap way to visit Mt. Fuji.

Tickets cost Y1,750 yen or $22.30 for adults and Y880 yen or $11.20 for children and the bus ride will take one hour and 45 minutes. Enjoy your trip to Mt. Fuji!

Lately in the news, there has been a proposal to allow Filipinos, Indonesians and Vietnamese to travel to Japan without a visa but that is just still a proposal as there need to be consultations between Japan and the countries identified to make this official according to the Japanese News Agency, Kyodo.