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淡路島
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59217
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157000
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2005
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265
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Hyogo Awaji islandpng
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(
Japanese . 淡路島; ''Awajishima'') is an
Island in
Hyogo Prefecture ,
Japan , in the Eastern part of the
Seto Inland Sea between the islands of
Honshu and
Shikoku . As a transit between those two islands Awaji originally means "the road to
Awa Province ". Awaji was also written as 淡道.
Geographically it is separated from Honshu by
Akashi Strait , from Shikoku by
Naruto Strait . Since
1998 it is connected to Honshu by the
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge . Since the completion of the
Kobe Awaji Naruto Expressway , it has been the main eastern land link between Honshu and Shikoku. No airport serves Awaji.
The island consists of three municipalities:
Historically Awaji constituted one province,
Awaji Province since the
7th Century . It was a part of
Nankaido .
The Nojima
Fault , responsible for the 1995
Great Hanshin Earthquake , cuts across the island. A section of the fault was protected and turned into the Nojima Fault Preservation Museum, so as to show how the movement in the ground cut across roads, hedges and other installations. Outside of this protected area, the fault zone is less visible, except for some oddities in equipments (for instance, some ditch has a peculiar bend where the fault shifted its position).
One of the famous attractions of the island is the
Naruto Whirlpool s that form in the strait between
Naruto in
Tokushima and Awaji Island.
The English soccer/football team stayed on Awaji during the Soccer World Cup 2002.
The Awaji Puppet Theater, a form of traditional puppet theater or ''ningyō jōruri'' from which the
Bunraku puppet drama of Osaka is thought to have been derived, performs several shows daily in its own facilities in Nandan Town in southern part of the island. The Awaji puppets, which perform popular traditional dramas but have their origins in religious ritual, have enjoyed great success locally and have toured internationally to United States, Russia, and elsewhere.
According to ancient myth, Awaji was the first one among born Japanese islands from two gods or
Kami ,
Izanagi and
Izanami .
