On Mar 29, 2024 we had a sea day, traveling from Kagoshima, Japan to Hiroshima, Japan. The distance is approximately 230 miles, and we sailed through the East China Sea.

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. It is in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan. extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands (430 are inhabited), with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu (the “mainland”), Shikoku, Kytushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo, on Honshu, is the country’s capital and its latgest city. The population of Japan is approximately 125 million people. The population of Tokyo is approximately 13 million people, and its metropolitan area has more than 37 million people. Japan has been experiencing a shrinkage in its population as its birthrate is very low — 1.26 births per woman in 2022.