Mt. Fuji

* Mountains cover about 75% of Japan's land.  Mt. Fuji is Japan's highest mountain, with an altitude of 12,388 feet.  It is an active volcano, but with a very low risk of eruption.  In fact, the last time it erupted was 300 years ago.  That's not very active; it sounds more like a lazy volcano to me!  :) 

Mt. Fuji is a famous symbol of Japan, and has appeared in Japanese art and literature for centuries.  The picture in the top right-hand corner of this blog, The Great Wave at Kanagawa, is from a series of woodblock prints by Hokusai titled 36 Views of Mt. Fuji. Can you find Mt. Fuji in the picture?

Here is a haiku by Issa (1763-1827), one of Japan's most famous poets, which mentions the famous mountain.

Oh snail,

climb Mt. Fuji,

but slowly, slowly

Volcanoes & Earthquakes

A Tokyo street after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923

* Japan lies on a boundary between two plates of the earth's crust, which are pushing against each other.  Because of this, it has active volcanoes, as well as hundreds of tremors (small earthquakes) each year.  Although most of these tremors are too small to be felt, there have been major earthquakes in Japan's history.  

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which was centered in the Tokyo area, is estimated to have been about 8.2 on the Richter scale.  Because it occurred at lunch time, many people were cooking over open fires, which ignited the toppled buildings.  After the quake, fire spread throughout the city.  Approximately 130,000 people died in the quake and the fires that followed it.