Dazaifu Cultural Discovery Center

Starbucks Kyoto Experience inside a 100-year-old Japanese Townhouse

In Kyoto, Japan - There is a Starbucks that is housed inside a 100-year-old wooden townhouse. Complete with tatami mats ( a first of its kind), silk cushions and a Japanese Garden. Bringing the traditional atmosphere to a new generation.

This is not your average Starbucks.

Nansei Islands subtropical evergreen forests | Wikipedia audio article

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:



00:02:14 1 Island subgrouping
00:05:13 2 Names and extents
00:05:38 2.1 Nansei Islands
00:06:53 2.2 Ryukyu
00:08:34 2.2.1 Historical usage
00:10:05 2.3 Okinawa
00:11:29 2.4 Southern Islands
00:11:58 3 History
00:12:07 3.1 The Eastern Islands of Liuqiu
00:13:26 3.2 Ancient Japan's Southern Islands
00:18:01 3.3 Kikaigashima and Iōgashima
00:21:32 3.4 Shimazu Estate and Kamakura shogunate's expansion
00:24:22 3.5 Tanegashima under the Tanegashima clan
00:25:50 3.6 Amami and Tokara Islands
00:26:54 3.7 Okinawa Islands
00:30:34 3.7.1 Historical description of the iLoo-Choo/i islands
00:31:46 4 Population
00:31:55 4.1 Ryukyuan native people
00:33:24 4.2 Religion
00:34:13 5 Ecology
00:34:21 5.1 Yakushima
00:34:56 5.2 Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama
00:37:14 6 See also



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I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates


SUMMARY
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The Ryukyu Islands (琉球諸島, Ryūkyū-shotō), also known as the Nansei Islands (南西諸島, Nansei-shotō, lit. Southwest Islands) or the Ryukyu Arc (琉球弧, Ryūkyū-ko), are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni the westernmost. The larger are mostly high islands and the smaller mostly coral. The largest is Okinawa Island.
The climate of the islands ranges from humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa) in the north to tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification Af) in the south. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season and typhoons. Except the outlying Daitō Islands, the island chain has two major geologic boundaries, the Tokara Strait between the Tokara and Amami Islands, and the Kerama Gap between the Okinawa and Miyako Islands. The islands beyond the Tokara Strait are characterized by their coral reefs.
The Ōsumi and Tokara Islands, the northernmost of the islands, fall under the cultural sphere of the Kyushu region of Japan; the people are ethnically Japanese and speak a variation of the Kagoshima dialect of Japanese. The Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands have a native population collectively called the Ryukyuan people, named for the former Ryukyu Kingdom that ruled them. The varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally spoken on these islands, and the major islands have their own distinct languages. In modern times, the Japanese language is the primary language of the islands, with the Okinawan Japanese dialect prevalently spoken. The outlying Daitō Islands were uninhabited until the Meiji period, when their development was started mainly by people from the Izu Islands south of Tokyo, with the people there speaking the Hachijō language.
Administratively, the islands are divided into Kagoshima Prefecture (specifically the islands administered by Kagoshima District, Kumage Subprefecture/District, and Ōshima Subprefecture/District) in the north and Okinawa Prefecture in the south, with the divide between the Amami and Okinawa Islands, with the Daitō Islands part of Okinawa Prefecture. The northern (Kagoshima) islands are collectively called the Satsunan Islands, while the southern part of the chain (Okinawa Prefecture) are called the Ryukyu Islands in Chinese.