Japanese History Teacher Reacts to Geography Now! Japan

this is miyuki thank you for clicking this video today we are reacting to geography now japan made by geography now it was requested by one of our yukijin so thank you so much it was made around 2017 but yeah we're gonna watch it now cause yeah anyways if you enjoy japan related memes please don't forget to join our subreddit i'll put the link in the description all right let's start i'm kind of excited because i love these stuffs this is one country i barely have to introduce you to let's just get it over with sushi geishas karate temples ramen anime sumo's weird stuff weird cosplay poison fishing to learn geography now hey everybody i'm your host barb's we have reached the land of the rising sun asia's island powerhouse and home to a culture that i'm sure you've heard of let's just jump into it ah japan you have such a story behind you first of all japan is located right off the east coast of the asian continent between the pacific ocean and the sea of japan stretching all the way from the sea of akhotsk in the north with the east china sea to the south the country is divided into 47 prefectures each with incredibly beautifully minimalistic style flags the prefectures are divided into four different categories ken tofu and the first level ken ken 43 plain prefectures then you have to which means something like metropolis and this category only applies to tokyo city by the way tokyo literally means east metropolis but before that the capital city was kyoto and kyou also means metropolis and it's kind of confusing because the second character of kyoto the tol can also read as miyako which also means the metropolis it was in 1869 when they changed the capital city to tokyo but the funny thing here is they only made a law which says that tokyo is the new capital city around 1950 which is very recent whereas before kyoto it was a capital city for about 1 100 years so it was political and cultural center of japan foo refers to the urban prefectures which applies only to the cities of osaka and kyoto and finally do which is a unique category translating to something like circuit and it applies to all of hokkaido in the north speaking of which tokyo japan's capital is the largest city in the world with its greater metropolitan area including kanto containing about 37 million people i live here now canada however tokyo is kind of like 23 smaller cities all smashed into one divided into units called wards and the closest thing to a capital one would probably be chiyoda where the emperor prime minister and supreme court are located after the greater tokyo kanto region you have the next largest cities osaka and nagoya coming in keep in mind about 90 of people in japan live in cities the busiest airports of course being tokyo's two twins haneda which is actually in tokyo and narita international which is like an hour and a half drive away outside of tokyo then you have osaka's kansai international kicks and fukuoka international on kyushu gotta keep it clean keith speaking of which japan wait we also have big international airport near nagoya it's called chubikoxico it's called santra because it's in the middle of japan all right let's made up about 6 850 islands but about 97 of the land is made up of four main islands honshu kyushu shikoku and hokkaido south of the main floor you have the ryukyu island chain which extends just south of kyushu partially making up the okinawa prefecture you've probably heard of okinawa it's where uma thurman got that sword that she used to kill lucy liu it's also where these two islands never mind nonetheless japan can still kind of be separated into 10 historical main regions six of which divided amongst honshu then you have the interesting less highlighted kiro island dispute with russia in the north basically russia and northern ireland and japan claims these two islands closest to hokkaido or etoro futo and kunashir or kunashiri which is only like less than 10 miles away from hokkaido on a clear day you can even see it from the coast but it's like nope russia they even have a statue of lenin so in that northern ireland they have a different resources such as geothermal resources and mineral resources which i guess both country wants it russians and japanese have kind of had a long dispute over this area at one point japan even tried to take over all of sakhalin in the 1800s then you have the dokdo takashima island dispute between them and south korea and that island they have mainly fishery south korea has a patrol building built on the island and they fiercely guard it and finally you have okinotorishima which is probably the loneliest place in japan as a shower reef in the middle of the ocean it looks like it's trying so hard to become an island complete with three helipads and a research station there's no diplomatic dispute but rather a dispute within the u.n on whether or not it qualifies as land for an exclusive economic zone in the ocean okay all right that kind of took forever well if you're interested to japanese territory topics i think you can learn a lot from a japanese guy misha's homepage i'll put the link in the description so you can see their point of view and i think they explain it in different languages so take a look getting around to japan is incredibly easy often touted as having the best public transportation system in the world they have highways and trains everywhere even one that cuts through an office building as well as the shinkansen bullet train system that can get you to virtually every corner of honshu and kyushu as well as the bottom tip of hokkaido but not you want to go to shikoku you have to take this slower local seto ohashi line across the seto bridge yeah shikoku is kind of like the runt of the litter in japan wait nani shikoku is kind of like the runt of the litter in japan shikoku is kind of like the bunt of the letter in japan yes i'm not gonna lie shikoku is pretty rural in japan but there are so many beautiful amazing things and places foods in shikoku i know that because my dad is from shikoku he's from ehime famous for mikang if you haven't tried the ponju-su which is the best orange juice from ehime then i don't know what to say barb song it is so good that a metal rock band made a song about it [Music] [Applause] foreign also in matsuyama they have dogo onsen which is one of the famous and oldest onsen in japan and the imperial family always visits there kochi prefecture has the best udon i think the best way to go there is by car if you love nature you're gonna love it and if you love driving it's just so beautiful you've seen the beautiful endless coastline and the mountains and islands also shikoku has the last two remaining original japanese castles in japan it is in kochi and matsuyama also they have the shinanto river which is the cleanest and clearest river in japan and it's the last natural river in japan so i don't know if it makes sense but i want to thank shikoku as the last japan in japan what anyways you gotta try the ponju someday basically japan is like one big massive machine constantly running and moving with flashing neon lights vending machines and robots and everything everything even the garbage cans have cartoons cartoons everywhere anyway some notable places of interest might include tokyo skytree the second tallest building in the world miyajima pagoda matsumoto himeji i see many foreigners on instagram who takes pictures in this torii gates this torii that you see in this video this were a collared painted red because it is uh believed to keep the evils away and this were devoted as a means of prayers for their wish so if you make a wish when you pass the gates they say that you'll get good luck i would love to go there again for instagram picture shrine the great buddha hall nakagine capsule tower the vine bridges of iya valley the ramen museum so many weird themed restaurants and hot springs the self-mummified monks that hotel run by robots the ninja museum in iga lava buddhas the restricted access is grand shrine the most significant of all shinto shrines the shirakawa gold traditional village shirakawago is kind of near from my hometown and it's really beautiful during the fall season armed with water cannons to protect itself from fires abandoned theme parks like greenland and nara dreamland lucia hill with red cypress and the national treasure itsukushima shrine featured on numerous pieces of art films and even banknotes by the way in itsukushima shrine you'll see this uh taurid is placed in the water do you know why because i thought it was so weird when i was a kid and i found out that it's because the whole island is the shrine so they put it outside it and since it's in the water it kind of moves because of the waves and i thought that was so cool now despite the bustling metropolis regions and skyscrapers japan does an incredible job at maintaining its natural integrity find out how now japan's land is kind of like a gingerbread house beautiful on the outside but potentially dangerous on the inside first of all japan is a strange volcanic archipelago located right right curiously situated sections it's crazy four major tectonic plates converge the pacific the philippine the eurasian and the north american plates of course this means that not only is japan subject to earthquakes but also tsunamis which by the way is a japanese word tsunami caused from sub-oceanic activities such as the one recently in fukushima caused by the epicenter in the japan trench off the pacific this also means that japan is a volcanic area with numerous volcanoes still active like aogashima a volcano within a volcano mount [ __ ] the largest volcanic caldera this in return also blesses japan with countless natural hot springs which they like to exploit and build bath houses on called onsen typically indicated with this symbol all this plate activity in volcanoes means that about 70 of japan is mountainous with the highest peak mount fuji overlooking tokyo which by the way is still technically an active volcano which erupted about 300 years ago the rift between the philippine plate and the eurasian plate creates the japanese alps which bisects the country on honshu and this middle area the honshu there are many mountains there like a beautiful mountain we have 100 famous mountain in japan and most of them are in japanese alps this honshu where he marked it it's actually one of my goal to go all 100 mountains before i die although i've been in mount fuji and i think that's the most beautiful mountain i've ever seen my friend said that there are many other mountains in japan that is like a lot beautiful than mount fuji this isolated geologic war zone in return though kind of blesses japan with an abundance of unique flora and fauna today about 70 of japan is forested with nice natural water sources like the longest river the shinano and the largest lake lake biwa and honshu i think my brother went around biwa lake by bike and i don't know how long it took him to finish it like few days i'm not sure but it is that big endemic animals can be found like japanese hornets makake monkeys tanuki's giant salamanders bobtail cat saro red fox red crown crane the national dog the shiba inu the national bird the green pheasant and the national fish koi speaking of animals japan has quite a few feral animal islands and towns such as tashirojima the cat i want to go there so bad island the town of miyajima for deer miyagi zao for foxes and of course jigokudani where you can see those monkeys and hot springs with limited space and only about 20 highly subsidized arable land japan has kind of had to think outside the box so they said hey why not go to the sea today japan is disputably the most advanced aquaculture society on the planet not only do they have the largest merchant marine fleet in the world but they also harvest everything from shellfish to seaweed and offshore ocean plots and fish farms they love fish they even have the largest fish market in the world speaking of which we all know about japanese uh i think some of them move to toyosu but there are still many stores in tsukiji so if you want to enjoy eating seafoods you can still go to tsukiji market food i feel like i don't even really have to give you a list of notable dishes like sushi mochi or ramen however japan is known for making strange flavors of conventional snacks drinks and desserts such as yogurt pepsi spaghetti popsicles horse and octopus ice cream pancake juice wasp crackers and kitkat has tried pretty much anything that exists speaking of which japanese is the third largest world economy by nominal gdp mostly due to their various technology and automotive industries that have swept over the world by storm since the middle of the 20th century the largest but the thing is most car companies in japan their sales number is decreasing a lot i think it's not gonna be as good as before companies include toyota mitsubishi honda nissan mazda suzuki and subaru as well as tech companies and their subsidiaries like hitachi sony epson canon toshiba fujitsu panasonic nikon and nintendo this does however cause a problem japan is classified as a high throwaway society in which lots of resources get unnecessarily used and tossed like come on japan i know you have aesthetic standards but seriously i don't need one apple in vacuum sealed plastic wrap nonetheless japan is not necessary if not the world leader in robotics and tech science receiving more nobel prizes in science than any other asian country and it's kind of impressive i mean with a high population and limited space japanese people know how to consolidate and innovate speaking of japanese people [Music] now japanese people are like you never know what they're gonna come up with next you know it's probably going to be a little weird but you're still going to be a little interested in it first of all the country has about 127 million people and is the 10th most populous country in the world however now yeah it's still the same the country is incredibly homogenous with over 98 of the populists identifying as ethnically japanese while the remainder is mostly made up of koreans chinese and very small caucasian minorities of americans and europeans and the indigenous ryukyu and i like the background as their currency they surprise you american style and they drive on the left side of the road as mentioned like eight seconds ago japan has two main indigenous ethnic groups each with their own languages you have the ainu which predominantly inhabit hokkaido and some of the kuro islands administered by russia known for their rustic scruff oh by the way i made a video about dying languages in japan i'll put the card above so if you're interested in that i highly recommend watching it three features where men grew beards and women used to tattoo their lips and arms today there are less than 30 000 left but some estimate that there could be up to 200 000 if you include the other inu that have assimilated into the rest of japan and are kind of faintly aware of their own culture otherwise you have the ryukyu people or the okinawans which are kind of like the hawaiians of japan known for their own distinct art and traditions and beliefs now everybody in the world has had at least a little bit of exposure to some kind of japanese culture whether it be samurais geisha sumos kabuki shamisen music kimonos and excessively weird products in advertising is the lady gaga in japan i think many people knows her using non-conformity as a hook to engage viewers but apart from all that flashy japan stuff let's look at the basics first japan no surprise speaks japanese which is actually not that hard to learn conversationally but it's a nightmare when it comes to writing the japanese uses three alphabets hiragana katakana and kanji technically four if you include romaji but that's kind of like for lazy people the first two hiragana and katakana are syllable reads made up of 46 corresponding base characters each that means you have two ways to write each syllable whereas kanji is a list of chinese characters that they borrowed from china most students have to learn about tutoring that means that chinese people can kind of get by in japan just by reading the signs as most of the characters have identical meanings it's just different pronunciations it's kind of hard to explain but the reason why they use three alphabets is because each one kind of plays a role for certain words in context they don't use spaces and writing so each alphabet kind of acts as like word dividers and katakana is used for technical and foreign words well why don't they just fix the problem by using spaces and discard the other two alphabets if you use only two it will be really hard to read it for example niuani niwa it means there are two chickens in the garden if you write it in hiragana and katakana it will be really hard to understand but historically we didn't start with three so before it was two only kanji and then katakana and hiragana was added it's been about 1 200 years since we used three of them all of them yeah it's crazy shut up that's why if you didn't grow up here and actually learn this stuff you're either obsessed with japan or criminally insane sorry i'm boring the crap out of you guys with language stuff anyway let's talk about history now i'm sure many of you have seen that video by bill woods whom i am totally not jealous of considering that he racked up more subscribers in two videos than i have in all these years of working on this channel well you know he really deserves it first of all i'm very grateful for that video because it gave me a chance to talk more about our culture and my previous reaction video yes i made a reaction video in it second of all i am surprised on how much work he put in this video he really did his own research and the way he edits it it's so fun i think he made a really good job i love it but in the quickest way i can summarize it yayoi period kofun period yamatos unite japan asuka regime chinese culture comes in heian period aristocrats take over kamakura period aristocrats lose shogun time province wars azuchi momoyama period things are stable meiji restoration industrialization world war one japan's economy sucks coup d'etats and assassination attempts against the emperor military rule they try to make an empire and in world war ii attack pearl harbor nagasaki and hiroshima afterwards treaties signed military kind of dismantled and post-war economic miracle done japan definitely sticks out from every country on earth and it's pronounced japan is the only country in the world that practices shintoism which obviously enough started in japan if you don't know anything about shintoism basically it's a very ritualistic belief system that reveres a multitude of kami which translates to something along the lines of gods or spirits or essence it's hard to explain but basically that's called yao yorozunokami it's a belief that there's gods in everything for harvest tommy for war kami for good luck and so on today about 80 of japanese people practice shinto to some extent whether it be going to temples or shrines and lighting incense and praying however most of them will not say that they identify as shintoist oh by the way when you make a wish and shrine like after you toss that coins you have to actually introduce yourself and say your address well you don't have to say it out loud like you can say in your mind i know it's kind of weird but i started doing that lately since there are no formal rituals to deem yourself a practitioner otherwise about 35 might say that they identify as buddhists and a small three percent are christians today there are about 81 000 shinto shrines and about 85 000 appointed shinto priests all over the country technically shintoism is also important because it's claimed that the emperor is a direct descendant of amaterasu the goddess of the sun which means the emperor has the highest authority in shintoism though today it's more seen as like a moral tradition and patriotic practice rather than believing that the emperor actually has divine status oh yeah japan has an imperial family with akihito the new emperor's name is narushito sama and his wife is masakosama only country with an emperor some people will say that shintoism is partially the reason why japan also has a vibrant complex industry of cartoons and anime many of which inspired from shinto driven legends and kami they often rank as the top video game producing and playing country in the world everybody knows mario sonic and pikachu in a sense japanese people have always admittedly kind of been escapists creating their own worlds and it might be due to their long history of diplomatic isolation another sense though honor and diligence culture is of huge importance having a degree and respectable title is always flaunted the problem though is that japan has the largest aging population in the world in which over 26 percent of the country is 65 or older in contrast about 12.4 are 1 to 14 years old sociologists have many theories as to why this is but in addition to a high depression rate there seems to be a lack of sexual interest amongst millennials especially for men they even have i don't really know if that's the main reason but when the japanese government saw this problem around 70s 1970s they didn't do anything they didn't solve the problem they were not really interested i think that's also one of the main reason why it got worse i think japan can learn a lot from france on how they solve this problem word for it soshoku or herbivores on top of that japan has a very strict and conservative approach towards immigration and citizenship so ultimately a smaller generation has to lift the burden of taking care of a population almost 10 times their size any japanese people are overworked they even have a word for that karoshi some wonder how the future will look like hey son can you help me cross the street oh i would but you never had a son so i don't exist good luck now you can probably understand why the japanese are so into building robots there's so much more we could talk about like how japan has a strong history in martial arts folklore and regional festivals but this video is already getting long and i have to cut it down by the way have you ever imagined what would happen to japan if this keeps decreasing for me it is a really big problem there will be less competition there will be less smart people scientists doctors athletes more schools would shut down japan which is already happening now that also means it will get a lot easier to pass an entrance exam in like you know famous universities like tokyo university they will have to gradually lower their standards and i don't know maybe like in a few decades like japan is part of other country i hope it doesn't happen though and i hope japanese government can do more for the women for them to be able to have both a career and a family because right now in japan it's still hard to do that and that's also why many women choose career over you know getting married or having kids notable people of japanese descent might include people like that emperor hirohito fukuzawa yukichi tatakatsu kukai toshie tokugawa murasaki saifo takamori akira the is a pretty big player on the world stage as a member of the g20 g8 imf w-h-o-u-n-e-a-s interpol and like 400 other acronyms they know diplomacy pretty well they get along with brazil peru and the philippines pretty well as each country contains many japanese communities in addition lots of people from these countries either visit or work in japan peru even had a japanese president as mentioned in the france episode japan kind of sees france as like the epitome of european exoticism and after english french is one of the most highly desired languages to learn although good luck considering how every french working i didn't know that pacific island nations of palau kiribati and marshall islands still hold close ties even though japan kind of occupied them during the first half of the 20th century japanese people love visiting and provide business and revenue for these countries their biggest frenemies are south korea and china it's a love and hate relationship i think but they all have many things in common such as being one of the most intelligent countries in the world yeah three are like the asian trifecta dominating most of the business and affairs in the east despite japan having invaded and occupying these two for decades my own grandmother was actually raised in japanese occupied korea and to this day she still speaks fluent japanese they've mostly moved on plus the whole north korea thing kind of makes south korea and japan closer the youth of today love piggybacking off of each other's cultures koreans and japanese administrators they can't get enough of japanese anime and video games whereas the japanese artists got kanji and buddhism from china so uh there's that in terms of their best friends however interestingly enough though most of the japanese people i've talked to have said the usa and taiwan even though they don't officially recognize taiwan as a sovereign state on paper they totally act like they do and stand with them on pretty much any diplomacy i'm going to tie it actually the longest lasting occupied area even though the pains of world war ii will never be forgotten it's funny because almost immediately after that the u.s and japan started skipping down the street hand-in-hand the u.s kind of felt like a duty to make reparations since they were already communities of japanese americans especially in hawaii and california my hometown los angeles tokyo so they invested tons of money in japan after the war and in the 50s japan started booming in every industry culture cues were adopted on both sides donald's opened up in tokyo 7-11 opened up in the u.s they love burgers and chris evans and we have nerds living in their mom's basements re-watching every season of naruto shipped in with ill-fitting cosplay outfits in conclusion the land of the rising sun has always kind of figured that the best way for them to open up to the world was to create their own worlds with wild imaginations driven by technology yet still beautifully preserving the ancient vibrant values of their ancestors thank you so much barbsa that was a nice video i enjoyed a lot it's really funny goofy and informative i had so much fun i will have to subscribe to his channel it's very interesting well i hope you enjoyed watching this video with me please don't forget to like comment subscribe and hit that notification bell i post a video every single week join our channel membership today to get access to all the perks also please give a follow to our shop instagram at arte asharika until next [Music] time [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: lifeasmiyuki

Views: 11,711

Rating: 4.9655666 out of 5

Keywords: geography facts, geography class, demographics, culture, tradition, japan, tokyo, osaka, japanese history teacher reacts to history of japan, bill wurtz history of japan, japanese reacts, Geography Now! Japan - REACTION, HypeTrain, life as miyuki filthy frank, japanese memes, Japanese History Teacher Reacts to Geography Now! Japan, japanese meme review, japanese reacts to filthy frank, yukinews, funny trending japanese tiktok, history of japan reaction

Id: QoXwanqNOVQ

Length: 25min 42sec (1542 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021