Japan is an island country off the coast of what we call today Korea (North and South) and Russia. It borders the Pacific ocean to the east, the Sea of Japan to the west, the East China Sea to the south west, and the Sea of Oshotsk to the north. Japan is a large chain of islands, with temperate climates with four distinct seasons in the north that warms into a much more tropical climate in the south. It lies along the ring of fire, a large zone along the shores of the Pacific Ocean that goes all the way from Indonesia to Russia to Sout Amaerica and back where there are unstable, shifting tectonic plates. As a result, over half of Japan is mountainous, and the area is prone to earthquakes and even tsunamis. In addition, the island nature of Japan makes it vulnerable to summer typhoons.