~ The Land of the Rising Suuuun~

Picking a country to write this assignment was a bit difficult since there a Lot of places I would like to visit, such as, Switzerland, New Zeland, Australia, Greece, China, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, England, Scotland, and well... actually pretty much all Europe.
But if I had to choose a place to start, I guess it could be Japan. I’ve been dying to go there for quite some time now. Japan is an archipelado (a chain of islands) composed of 6,852 islands, the bigger four being Hokkaidō, Honshū (the main one), Shikoku and Kyūshū.

I’m highly interested in their ancient culture, customs and landscapes. Curiously the technological aspect of the country doesn’t interest me at all.
One of things that I would like to do there is to attend a Kabuki play (a form of highly stylized classical theater) and a tea ceremony. I would also like to visit an Ikebana museum (Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement) and if possible I would love to learn how to make flower arrangements myself, although this is a little more complicated since Ikebana implies a lot more than just putting flowers togheter, it’s actually a very complex discipline. Other places I would absolutely have to go if I ever travel to Japan are Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples (Shintō and Buddhism are Japan’s two main religions).
It would also be nice to spend new year there and visit a temple on January 1st (this is a tradition know as Hatsumōde).

During the year many festivals take place in Japan. Attending these is another of the activities that I would like to do there. For example I would like to attend Sapporo’s snow festival, lake Shikotsu’s ice festival, lake Towada’s snow festival (these 3 are held during February since they include ice sculptures exhibitions) , Aomori Nebuta festival, and Hanabi (also known as the cherry blossom festival). I would also like to visit some traditional hot springs (known as Onsen in Japan) and Mount Fuji (the highest mountain in Japan and also an active volcano).

Of course my visit to Japan wouldn’t just involve activities related to old traditions. I would also like to visit a particular Tokyo neighborhood called Akihabara. There I could buy lots of mangas and anime DVD’s. Being in Japan would also allow me to attend several concerts of artists I like that pretty much only perform there.

Another mandatory stop is TokyoTower. Tokyo Tower is a very popular communication and observation tower located – as the name itself says it- in Tokyo. It’s structure was actually inspired by the Eiffel Tower.

Something I have to clarify is that eventhough I would absolutely love to visit Japan and spend some time there I don’t think that I would actually like to live there or at least not in a big city. Japan is an extremely high populated country (about 30 million people live just in the Tokyo area) and I wouldn’t stand to live in such a crowded place.

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