"Japan is a fascinating and beautiful nation of mountains, hot springs, forests, and gleaming, ultramodern cities. Made up of four main islands and thousands of smaller ones, the long narrow East Asian country is just slightly smaller than California. The Japanese name for their country, Nippon, means "sun's origin," because the Japanese once believed that the sun shines first on Japan. From their point of view, of course, this is true every morning since Japan faces no other land to the east, just the vast Pacific Ocean. For this reason, the country is known as the Land of the Rising Sun. This lovely idea is symbolized on the national flag, which is a simple red sphere centered on a white background. In cultural terms, Japan is land of great contradictions. As a society, it has adapted to rapid change over a relatively short span of history--from isolated hermit nation to world power, from wartime aggressor to noncombatant pacifist, from divine absolute monarchy to secular democracy."-- Provided by publisher