The Japanese call their country “Nippon” or “Nihon”, which literally means “The Beginning of the Sun”. Japanese myths say that the ancestor of the Japanese and Japan was the Sun Goddess - this, in fact, explains the name. In the West, another name has taken root - Japan - from the Chinese reading of the hieroglyphs “The Beginning of the Sun”. After all, the West first learned about Japan through China after the travel of Marco Polo. The 7,000 Japanese islands together make up an area equal to two-thirds of France, slightly larger than Germany and exactly the same as the American state of Montana. However, due to the abundance of mountains, highlands and volcanic zones, only 25% of the land is inhabited. The population of Japan is 125 million, that is, almost half of the entire population of the United States of America. Now try to pack half of all Americans into a quarter of the single state of Montana - and you will get a clear picture of existence on the Japanese Islands.