Kind of a random question. In Japan a lot of people say how “Tokyo is east” or “Kyushu is west” and such. But for me, I always thought of Japan as north to south rather than east to west if you know what I mean. Like I’d say Tokyo is north of Kyoto for example, but I think most people would say Tokyo is to the east. Technically it’s mostly diagonal, but I always seem to think north/south rather than east/west (Same with Sweden and Norway, I say Norway is above Sweden but most people say Norway is west of Sweden). I’d like to know what other people think. I’ve tried searching it up but it only gives me answers to the writing system rather than geography.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/13ewxz2/is_japan_vertically_or_horizontally_long/
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Look up a JR regions map. That will give you a good idea.
I have partly studied in the Touhoku region, that is undisputedly in the North of course, but not part of the cultural core/mainland of Japan, which is most prominently featured in the Kantou/Kansai division (ijou desu ;)) all in all- you are right from a geographical point of view, but not a cultural one
Well Japan is, roughly, as wide as it is tall so it’s both. However once you take population density and concentration into account it’s a more east/west thing and then the stuff north of Tokyo.
Yes
I’d say you have a point about the compass direction dividing line in Japan, I feel the same. But it doesn’t matter how we feel. Convention has developed differently.
On Sweden/Norway you’re on your own.
Exactly the same way how I feel about it. Japan Sea = West Coast = West, Pacific = East Coast = East. Hokkaido is north of Tokyo and Kyushu is south. Of course it’s absolutely wrong because Ogasawara is more or less south of Tokyo and in winter when the snow appears, you can see how much wrong it is and you actually notice it when driving from Tokyo to Kyoto on Tomei. But the country is so diagonal they should have different time zones in Hokkaido and Okinawa lol.
I’d say it’s more east and west. Hokkaido and Tohoku are north, and Okinawa is south, but the rest is mostly considered east and west.
Just look at the names of the different JR regions.
After 3 dates.
Japanese people use east and west. A lot of it is the border running from south to north. Splitting it in half between the east and west.
It makes the most sense for where the divide is, because it isn’t that far south, and would cut the bottom half of Honshu in a really long way, making a long border line. It also has to do with Tokyo and Osaka, because Osaka is way more west than it is south.
People use south for Miyazaki, Kagoshima & Okinawa prefectures and North for Aomori and Hokkaido.
But when I am explaining geography to foreigners, I always use north and south, for describing cities because they think of japan as a single straight, long island with Hokkaido at the top, and Kyushu at the bottom. And that is okay.
Diagonally