Japan is an island country

Japan lies in the Pacific, with her face toward the morning sun and her gates open to the east. Geographically defined, Japan is a series of long and narrow volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, lying off the north-eastern coast of the Asiatic continent in the shape of a longitudinal curve.

This simple definition would require a detailed explanation were we to exhaust its full meaning --a task for which we have now no space at command. All we can do is to take up one by one the salient points of the definition and treat them from the standpoint of anthropo-geography. In the present discourse, I wish to amplify the following points: 1st, that Japan is an island country; 2d, that it is volcanic; 3d, that it is narrow; 4th, that it is long; 5th, that it lies off the coast of the Asiatic continent; 6th, that it lies in the Pacific Ocean.

Islands naturally possess a maritime climate, the distinctive features of which are equability, relative humidity, and great cloudiness. One curi- ous effect of our moist atmosphere is the frequent use of very warm baths, which are taken at a temperature as high as 120° Fahrenheit. New- comers to Japan regard such a practice as highly unhygienic, but a few years' residence demonstrates to them that the custom is dictated by climatic demands. Our people are not happy unless they bathe frequently, and this habit of daily ablution is perhaps due to atmospheric humidity.

It has throughout the year an average of 150 days of snow or rain, and 215 days of fair weather; that is, for every three days of rain or snow, we have four fine days. As to quantity, the rainfall ranges, according to locality, from twenty to thirty inches a year.

Being located where they are, the Japanese islands are farthest removed from the centre or centres of world politics,--from European capitals or from the Atlantic coast of this continent. It is over seven thousand miles from New York to Yokohama.