Thorn Tree Posts Postcards Scoop Articles Related Weblinks Environment Japan floats like a dismembered seahorse along the eastern rim of the Asian continent. Around 10,000 years ago, during the last big melt, sea levels rose enough to flood the land bridge connecting Japan with the mainland.
Japan has the dubious distinction of being one of the most seismically active regions of the world.
It is calculated that the country gets around 1000 earthquakes a year, most of them too small to notice without sophisticated seismic equipment or a very elaborate hairstyle. Japan's latitudinal spread, ranging from subtropical in the south to sub-arctic in the north, makes for a wide diversity of flora and fauna. Much of what you see in Japan today isn't what was there to begin with. Fortunately, the sheer inaccessibility of much of Japan's mountainous topography has preserved areas of great natural beauty - in particular the alpine regions of central Honshu and the natural parks of Hokkaido. Animals unique to Japan include the macaque, a medium-sized monkey, and the giant salamander.