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**__JAPAN__** There are approximately 127 million people in Japan, they speak Japanese. Their currency is yen; Tokyo is the capital city of Japan. Shinto and Buddhism are the 2 major religions in Japan. Japan is a constitutional monarchy where power of the emperor is very limited. Power is mostly held by the prime minister, Naikaku sōri daijin, and the Diet. Japan is 4,345 miles away from Australia which is equivalent to 6,993 kilometres. It is slightly North West from Cairns. By plane it takes to get from Australia to Japan. The cost to get from Australia to Japan by plane is $799 a ticket which is pretty good value. The currency in Japan is Yen. **__SHINTO BUDDHISM__** Shinto Buddhism was brought to Japan in the 6 th  century. In customary practice Shinto Buddhism rites are observed to celebrate such occasions such as birth and marriage. The word Shinto is comprised or 2 Chinese characters and is often translated as “the way of Gods.” At the end of 1994 there were over 78,000 Buddhism temples in Japan. The most significant celebration happens every May on the night of the full moon. When Buddhist all over the world celebrate the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha over 2,500 years ago. Ancestor Day is celebrated by the Japanese, it is known as Obon. They also celebrate things like Bon Festival and the New Year Celebration. On the 3rd day of the 3rd month there is a Girls festival, which is where girls dress up traditional dolls in traditional clothes and put them on display. All the traditional homes in Japan have a Buddhist Shrine where all the members can pay respect to their ancestors. Kyoto, a city in Japan, has thousands of Shinto shrines and temples.

__**WEATHER IN JAPAN**__


 * Average temperatures for Summer: || 28c || 18c ||
 * Humidity: || 33% || 53% ||
 * Temperature average: || 21c || 15c ||
 * Rainfall (average): || 1.1% || 8.7% ||
 * Other Info: || Australia’s maximum temperature for 2009 was 42c degrees || Japan’s maximum temperature for 2009 was 35c degrees ||

 Summer in Australia is 10c degrees hotter than in Japan. Japan gets 7.6& more rainfall each year than Australia. Australia’s average temperature is 6c more than Japan’s. Japan’s average humidity is 20% more than Australia.  Japan get a lot more rain yearly than Australia.  __Japanese Traditional Games__ **Chopsticks**-the goal of chopsticks is to knock out the opponent’s hands by giving both hands 5 or more points. Each finger in equivalent to 1 point. Each player starts out with 2 points, 1 finger on each hand. A player must tap a hand to give it points, the amount of points given is the amount originally on the opponents hand. **Fukuwarai**- or in English “Lucky laugh” is a Japanese game played around New Years. The game is usually played by children, but adults play sometimes also. The game is similar to “pin the tail on the donkey”, but the players pin facial features onto a face.
 * Uta Garuta-**Is the most popular of all the crad games in Japan. It is mostly played on New Years Day, but there are also national conventions for Uta Garuta. Each card has a poem on it with a total of 100 poems in the game. The game involves 2 types of cards; 100 reading cards with drawings, and 100 grabbing cards with words.There are whole phrases of waka from the collection called Hyakunin Isshu written on the yomifuda. Only the lower phrase of the waka is written on the torifuda. When the reader reads out the waka on the yomifuda, the player quickly searches for the card among the torifuda to look for the phrase that matches the one that the reader is reading.

 **__The Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings __** The Hiroshima bombings happened near the end of World War 2 against the Empire of Japan by the United States. The nuclear weapon “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima on Monday August 6th 1945. Followed on August 9th by the detonation of the “Fat Man” nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, the bombing killed as many as 140,000 in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese Empire signed the Instrument of Surrender on September 2nd and officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War 2. On the 6th and the 9th of August there is a Remembrance Day for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims, this year was the 64th anniversary of the nuclear bombings.  Hideki Tojo was the general of the Imperial Japanese Army, in 1933 he was promoted to major general. Tojo’s nickname was “Razor” which came from his sharp mind and ability to make quick decisions. He was also the 40th Prime minister of Japan. He managed to keep his position of Army Minister during his time as Prime Minister from the 18 of October 1941 to the 22 of July 1944. He also served as Home Minister from 1941 to 1942, Foreign Minister in September 1942, Education Minister 1943 and Commerce Minister in 1943.After World War 2 Tojo was sentenced to Death for War Crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed on the 23 December 1948. He married Katsuko Ito in 1909 and had 3 sons and 4 daughters. He was born on the 30 December 1884 and died 23 December 1948 (age 63).
 * __Hideki Tojo:__**

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