Thursday 14 August 2008

Atami-san

Mt. Atami, on the northeastern coast of Japan’s Izu-hanto, the Izu Peninsula
(Shizuoka prefecture ken, Honshu), facing Sagami-nada (the Gulf of Sagami), an
enormous but extinct volcano, the ancient source from which the city of Atami,
built within the crater, derives its name. Almost half sunk into the sea, Atami-san
presents an Atlantean appearance.
Atami was an important resort as early as the fifth century A.D., although
Neolithic finds in the crater prove the site has been occupied from much earlier
times, when the name originated. “Atami,” an Atlantean linguistic survivor, has
no meaning in the Japanese language.

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