As a brief housekeeping note, most of the city and state names we'll be
seeing here are spelled differently in English than they are in Japanese. For
example, the city we know as Tokyo is actually Toukyou in Japanese. In
this chapter, I'll use the Japanese names in the main text and put the English
names, when they differ, in parentheses.
Like Hawaii, Japan was formed as a result of volcanic activity. Japan doesn't
just have mountains. It would be more accurate to say Japan is
mountains. From virtually any point in Japan, you can see mountains in just
about any direction you have an unobstructed view of the skyline. This is one
thing I love about the way the country looks. Seeing those hazy, low-lying
mountains in the distance always reminds you you're in Japan.
