1. Activities for Japan’s Location
This presentation aims to detail some activities you can use with your pupils when teaching them about Japan’s location.
Please read the notes section of each PowerPoint for additional information.

2. Travel Plan Activity
Explain that we are going to plan a journey to a part of Japan.
Have a set of criteria on a board or poster of what is required in a plan e.g. transport (plane, ship, train), hotel, travel insurance, things to do, places to visit etc.
Split pupils in to small groups and give groups a destination.
Allow groups to research and plan their journey using either reference books/maps or the Internet. Give prompts on where to start: Where is the place you are going to? How will you get there? Etc.
Review plans at the end of the lesson as a plenary.
Optional :Give each group a fictional budget to spend to get to a specific destination e.g. Kyoto, Tokyo or Fukuoka.
Depending on the time of year, it takes about £1000 per adult to visit Tokyo. Visits outside Tokyo would be more expensive depending on location.

3. Useful sites for journey planning
A useful travel website that gives prices for flights, hotels and even things to do.
- Another useful travel site that gives prices for flights and hotels.
- Japan Guide: gives useful information about Japan including descriptions of specific areas, things to do, places to visit etc.
- A top 10 list of things to do. There are quite a few of these around including lists from newspapers such as the Telegraph or the Guardian.
Before allowing pupils to use the internet for searches, I’d recommend that you check with your IT support/ co-ordinator in schools to make sure that appropriate firewalls and filters are active.
- A link to download Google Earth which enables you to look at the world as a globe online. It also has a zoom in feature which can show terrains and city views of particular locations.

4. Make Mount Fuji
A common activity used in Primary Science or Geography for teaching volcanoes: get your pupils to create a volcano. There are many ways of doing this. The example illustrated here is one way.
What you need:
Cardboard cylinder (e.g. a toilet roll holder)
Card or Cardboard base
Clay
Poster or Acrylic Paints
Optional: Plastic gloves
Instructions:
Place the cardboard tube on the card/cardboard base. You can attach this securely with Sellotape or masking tape if you want.
Roll the clay in your hands to warm it up, then mould around the tube into the shape of a mountain. Be careful, this gets quite messy.
Leave in a cool place to set for around 24 hours.
Paint using poster or acrylic paints and decorate base with trees/rivers etc.
Instructions to create a mountain/volcano.

5. Sketch a Map
A not-so common activity to use. I’d recommend using this once pupils are familiar with drawing maps: e.g. maps of their own communities or homes.
What you need:
A pencil
A ruler
Tracing paper
Image or Map of a country
Ribbon
Instructions:
Place the tracing paper over the map/ image of the country.
Using the ruler, draw a grid and add x and y co-ordinates.
Draw a compass in the top left corner.
Using the map/image, sketch the country onto the tracing paper.
Optional : Use a cold, damp teabag to colour the tracing paper, giving it an aged look. Leave to dry
Add central cities and landscapes to map.
The maps created can be used as part of a plenary. Either ask pupils to use co-ordinates to find significant places or say a significant place and get pupils to give the co-ordinates.