Welcome To The land of the rising sun

Japan

Nihon of Nippon... both mean 'Origin of the sun'

Origin

Geography

The 4 main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. And of course thousands of small islands make Japan truly an Island Nation.

Since the ‘center of the world’ in olden days was China  (or Chugoku, meaning the Country in the Middle), Japan was called the Land of the Rising Sun,  since Japan lies east of China, the direction where the sun always rises.

Though we sometimes fool our customers on our trips in Japan by claiming that on the other side of the world, the sun rises of course also from the other side…