The factual book of Japan By Justin Danny and nick
Chapter 1 Nippon As you all know Japan’s flag is really simple. All though, the white and the red stand for importance to the Japanese. The white represents purity and honesty. The red disk in the center of the flag stands for the sun.
The flag has been adopted as japans flag since the 1800’s. But also, the Japanese naval adopted this flag but put red rays going away from the red center. Japans flag was originally marine flag in 1854.
Himomaru
The Japanese flag was first used in the 1800’s. The flag also means the source of the sun. The Japanese official name for the flag is Nippon. But another name for the flag is Hinomaru.
I bet you don’t know that Japan means the land of the rising sun. Japan is 4000 islands of the coast of mainland Asia. Japan has 3 flags the rising sun, the flag of the emperor and hinomaru.
Chapter 2 Samurai
In Japan there are many different warriors. But the one I’m going to talk about is the samurai warrior. They came into existence in the 12 century. Two clans fought ageist each other to form the samurai. The two clans were the taria and the minamota clan. Another word for the samurai is bushi.
The samurai weapons are bows and arrows, spears, and swords. The samurai could not wear there traditional swords in public. The type of sword they used is a katana. There helmets were designed to scare the enemy.
If a samurai surrendered they would get there head severed (cut off). After defeat the survivors would cut there stomach opened and die rather than be killed by the enemy. Only highly ranked samurai could ride into battle on horses.
The bushidan code means you are loyal and willing to die in battle. The samurai started in small clans protecting small villages or big farms. In 1868 the samurai culture was done for the most part. Today people dress up like samurai, but they don’t fight in battles.
Chapter 3 Food
In Japan they eat a lot of different foods. In the tea ceremony called cha-no-yu they use a flower called ikebana, but they use more fish than tea. a traditional meal in Japan is rice, fish, and various vegetables, but now they have American fast food restrants.
Breakfast
Miso is a seasoning that is used a lot. Miso soup is a traditional breakfast in Japan. Now bread, milk, and other dairy are more common now.
Sushi
making sushi is considered an art in Japan. That is kind of weird to me. Maki is sushi rolled in nori, which is seaweed; but there is more sushi than just maki. You can put things on sushi like thin avocado slices.
Seaweed
Seaweed has been important to the Japanese diet. Nori is seaweed used for sushi and riceballs. Wakame is used for soup. Kombu is a large type of seaweed used as a soup stock or in nabe dishes.