GEEO Japan Google Earth Presentation Script

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USA

Today I’d like to share with you a great experience I had while traveling to Japan through a non-profit organization called GEEO. GEEO helps educators travel abroad so that they can learn more about different cultures to share with their students. I was joined on my trip by teachers from all around the United States.

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Asia

Japan is part of the continent of Asia, which is Earth’s largest continent. Can anyone name any other countries in Asia? Japan is in East Asia near countries like China, North and South Korea, and Russia.

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Japan

It is an archipelago. Do you know what an archipelago is? (A: a cluster or chain of islands)

The Japanese archipelago has 6,852 islands. Most of them are very small, but the four main islands are Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, and Hokkaido.

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Honshu Island

Honshu means “mainland,” and it is the largest and most populous island. There are over 100 million people living on Honshu, out of approximately 125 million total people in Japan.

The Japanese islands are very mountainous, which means almost all of the population is densely concentrated along the coasts. (Here is a population density map; the highest bars represent the greatest population. The large populated area in the middle is the Greater Tokyo Area, which I visited at the end of my trip.)

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Osaka

Our journey began on Honshu Island in Osaka, a vibrant and bustling city known for its modern architecture, delicious street food, and historical landmarks. Osaka is often referred to as the “Kitchen of Japan” due to its culinary scene. It has also long been an important city for trade and commerce.

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Osaka Castle

Osaka has an iconic castle that was built in the late 16th century, at which time it was the largest castle in Japan. The castle is five stories high, and the wall around the moat is up to 65 feet tall.

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Kōyasan

Our next stop was the serene Mount Kōya, the religious headquarters of Shingon Buddhism. This peaceful mountain retreat offers a unique opportunity to experience temple lodging (shukubo) and witness the monks’ daily routines. The breathtaking scenery makes Kōyasan a truly remarkable place.

The monastery was founded in 816 by the Buddhist monk Kobo Daishi, and it became the center of Shingon Buddhism. The mountain is considered sacred, and the Oku-no-in cemetery nearby, with its countless moss-covered tombstones and 10,000 lanterns, is the final resting place of emperors, samurai, and commoners. The spiritual practices and rituals observed by the monks provide a glimpse into Japan’s profound religious traditions.

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Hiroshima

We took a train to Hiroshima, known for being the first city targeted by an atomic bomb during World War II. By 1945, WWII was in its final stages but Japan had not surrendered. The U.S. chose Hiroshima as the first atomic bomb target due to its military and industrial significance—it was a major communication and supply center for the Japanese military.

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the bomb codenamed “Little Boy” was dropped over Hiroshima. The explosion generated intense heat, light, and radiation. The devastation killed tens of thousands. Survivors, known as hibakusha, faced long-term radiation effects including increased cancer rates, birth defects, and other health issues.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, demonstrated the overwhelming power of atomic weapons. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender, ending World War II.

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Peace Park

The Peace Park in Hiroshima is dedicated to the victims of the atomic bomb blast and serves as a reminder of the catastrophic impact of nuclear warfare. The preserved ruins of Gembaku Dome near the epicenter of the explosion stand as a stark symbol of resilience and the enduring pursuit of peace in the aftermath of tragedy.

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Miyajima Island

We also visited Miyajima Island with its famous floating Torii Gate, which provided us with a serene escape. The island’s shrines, temples, and friendly deer create a unique atmosphere, and the floating Torii gate, set out in the bay, glows extraordinarily at sunset.

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Kyoto

Next, we traveled by train to Kyoto, where we spent two nights in the traditional heart of Japan. Kyoto is home to over 2,000 temples, including some of the most magnificent in Japan, dating back centuries. There are also plenty of museums, castles, and traditional gardens. It is a very large city, with around 3.8 million people in the Greater Kyoto area.

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Nijo Castle

This is Nijo Castle, built in 1603 to be the residence of the Tokugawa shogun. The castle grounds are divided into three areas: the Honmaru (main fortification), Ninomaru (secondary fortifications), and the gardens that surround both. The entire area is surrounded by stone walls and moats.

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Fushimi Inari Taisha

We also visited the Fushimi Inari shrine, located just outside of Kyoto. The shrine has thousands of torii gates along trails spanning 2.5 miles up and down Inari Mountain. The earliest shrine was built at Inari Mountain in 711 AD/CE, dedicated to the Shinto kami (spirit/god) named Inari. Inari is one of the main kami in Shintoism and is the patron kami of agriculture (particularly rice), among other things. Foxes are thought to be Inari’s messengers, so there are several fox statues located around the shrine grounds.

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Thousand Torii Gates

In some places, the torii gates are so close together that the trail is entirely shaded, forming what looks almost like a glowing red tunnel that winds up and down the narrow mountain trails. Each one of the torii gates was donated by a Japanese individual or business, and their names are written on the back of the gates. The oldest torii are from the 8th century, and new ones are constantly being added.

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Kiyomizu-dera

Another important religious site in Kyoto is Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple that is part of Kyoto’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites and one of Japan’s most important temples. Originally built in 798, the current structures were built in 1633 without the use of a single nail. Kiyomizu means “pure water,” a reference to the natural spring that is part of the temple complex.

The temple has a fountain (called the Otowa Waterfall) where the spring is divided into three separate streams, and visitors can use cups attached to long poles to drink from them. Drinking from each of the streams is said to provide a different benefit—long life, academic achievement, and success in romantic relationships—but drinking from all three streams is considered greedy.

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Ryoan-ji

Ryōan-ji is another Buddhist temple in Kyoto with one of the finest examples of a Zen garden in all of Japan. The garden has boulders that are arranged among small, carefully selected polished river rocks that are raked into patterns that imitate ripples in water. The gardens are designed to facilitate meditation.

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Sanjūsangen-dō

Sanjūsangen-dō is a Buddhist temple that is famous for its long main hall (almost 400 feet long) dating from 1266. The wooden hall contains 1,001 life-size statues of the goddess Kannon lined up along the entire length of the building.

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Kinkaku-ji

One final temple in Kyoto I want to show you is Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The top two levels of the temple are covered in gold leaf. It is one of the most popular buildings in Kyoto and a Zen Buddhist shrine.

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Lake Ashino-ko

After leaving Kyoto, we visited Lake Ashino-ko, which is framed by picturesque mountains and offers boat rides for stunning views of Mount Fuji. We stayed in the nearby town of Hakone, famous for its hot springs, where we were able to unwind at a place that has inspired artists for centuries.

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Tokyo

Finally, we traveled by train one last time to Tokyo. It is the largest city in the world! There are nearly 40 million people living in the Greater Tokyo Area, which is more than the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas combined.

Tokyo is also the capital of Japan. It was formerly known as Edo and was once a small fishing village. At that time, Japan had an emperor, but the emperor was primarily a figurehead. The true ruler of Japan was a military dictator called a shogun. The shogun was a hereditary role, which means it was typically passed down from parents to their descendants.

From 1603 to 1868, the Tokugawa family controlled the shogunate in Japan. They governed from Edo, while the emperor lived in Kyoto, which was technically the capital city.

With the Tokugawa clan living in Edo, the village quickly grew into one of the largest cities in the world. In 1868, when the Tokugawas lost their influence in Japan, the emperor moved to Edo from Kyoto and renamed the city Tokyo, which literally means the “Eastern Capital.”

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Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower is a famous landmark in Japan. At 1,092 ft high, it is the second-tallest structure in the country; the tallest is another tower in Tokyo called the Tokyo Skytree. Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 as a communications and observation tower. It was inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

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Toyosu Market

Toyosu Market is a huge market in Tokyo that replaced an older fish market called Tsukiji Market. The market was opened in 2018, and during the first auction, a wealthy restaurant owner paid over $3 million for a 612-pound Pacific bluefin tuna. Tourists can watch the bidding at the market and eat at restaurants scattered throughout the buildings.

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Ginza

Ginza is a famous shopping district in Tokyo that is located in part of the original downtown center of Edo. It is one of the most expensive city districts in the world, and it’s where Tokyo’s luxurious department stores are all located, like Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci.

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Imperial Palace

The Imperial Palace is a large park-like area that contains the residence of the Emperor of Japan. The palace grounds are surrounded by a moat and are built over the site of the medieval Edo Castle that was the residence of the Tokugawa shogun. The original site was left in ruins after World War II, and the new palace hall and residences were built in the decades that followed.

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Sensō-ji

This is the oldest temple in Tokyo, an ancient Buddhist temple first built in 645 AD. It was bombed and destroyed during World War II and later rebuilt as a symbol of rebirth and peace to the Japanese people.

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Meiji Shrine

This is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. Shinto is a religion that originated in Japan, and many Japanese people are both Buddhist and Shinto. Shinto has no specific doctrines or sacred scriptures, but a core belief of the Shinto religion is that everything possesses a spiritual essence or energy called “kami”—mountains, rivers, places, animals, and people all have kami. The religion is ambiguous and flexible, and it is closely interwoven with Japanese culture.

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Shibuya

Shibuya is a major commercial and financial center in Tokyo. This intersection has a lot of large screens and advertisements, similar to Times Square in New York City. The intersection has what is called a scramble crossing; automobile traffic is stopped from all sides, and pedestrians scramble across the intersection in every direction, with as many as 3,000 people crossing at one time. Here is a video of pedestrians using Shibuya Crossing.