JNTO's Fun Facts About Japan
Japan boasts over 300 limited-edition flavours of Kit Kat, including plum, sweet potato and wasabi, with it's own Kit Kat Chocolatery in Tokyo. 'Kit Kats' when said in Japanese, sounds a lot like the Japanese for 'You will surely win' making the chocolate bar a popular good luck charm, especially for students around exam time.
Slurping noodles is considered perfectly acceptable in Japan as it enhances the flavour. Morioka city north of Tokyo hosts regular 'Wanko Soba Noodle Contests', an all you can eat free-for-all for anyone looking to test their metabolic mettle.
The Ogasawara Islands, a tropical island chain hanging down into the Philippine sea from Tokyo, are famous not only for their flying foxes, beaches and wreckage diving tours, but for being the only place in Japan to cultivate coffee.
Japanese people celebrate Christmas with KFC.
It is estimated that there are about 66,000,000 (66 million) cherry blossom trees in Japan.
There is a motorway in Osaka which goes through a 16-story building, TKP building.
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- There are over 500 ski resorts in Japan making it the country with the largest number of ski resorts in the world
- Junko Tanabe was the first woman ever to climb Everest and the first woman to complete the Seven Summits challenge. She hailed from the foothills of Mt Bandai, the 'lake district of Japan', in the mountainous areas of western Fukushima prefecture
- Japan is just over 70% mountain with over 100 active volcanoes (111 as of today), and consists of 6,852 islands
- The oldest person currently alive is Japanese – Kane Tanaka – a 116 year old resident of Fukuoka on Japan's southernmost island of Kyushu. Japan dominates the top 10 of the world's verified oldest women
- Various so-called 'animal islands' can be found across Japan's archipelago of 6,852, including Okunoshima Rabbit Island and Miyajima Deer Island in Hiroshima, as well as Tashirojima Cat Island in Miyagi just north of Tokyo
- Japan experiences a variety of temperatures depending on where in the country you are, and when you are visiting. The colder parts of Hokkaido in the north have reached a record low of -41°C in winter, while the southern tropical island chain of Okinawa has reached a record high of 36°C in summer
- Mt Fuji is an elusive creature, often shrouded by cloud and invisible. Winter in Japan offers the clearest skies and best visibility for Mt Fuji, as well as the best opportunity to see the mountain fully-dressed with its iconic snowy crest
- In Japan, 70% of lost money that is handed in is returned to its original owner
- The average annual delay for the Shinkansen bullet trains is only around 36 seconds
- Japan’s three biggest international airports all rank in the top five airports for baggage delivery – Kansai International hasn’t lost a single bag in 20 years
- Tokyo Tower could have been called Showa Tower, Mammoth Tower or Eternal Tower!
- Today, there are hundreds of castles to visit in Japan - but there used to be over 25,000. Of these, 12 still have the original tower from hundreds of years ago
- More than half of all Japanese households have toilets with a built-in bidet (80% of which are composed of 2 or more persons)
- In Japan, girls give/make chocolates for/to boys who they fancy on Valentine’s day. Those who receive chocolates on the Valentine’s day give girls a gift on a day called White day, which is 14th March
- O-matsuri (the Japanese word for festival) happen all over Japan, all year round, in cities big and small. The themes cover the likes of lantern parades and moon serenades, through to belly buttons and log riding. In celebration of the coming of the Rugby World Cup, the southern island of Kyushu will be hosting a mash-up of the best festivals from all over the island – taking place from 28th - 29th September – in the castle town of Kumamoto.