Japan (日本, Nihon or Nippon^?, officially 日本国 Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters which make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for 97% of Japan's land area. Most of the islands are mountainous, many volcanic; for example, Japan’s highest peak, Mount Fuji, is a volcano. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺, literally Temple of the Golden Pavilion^?), or formally Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺, Deer Garden Temple^?) is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the construction that represents the Kitayama Culture of Muromachi period.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) encompasses 17 locations in Japan. The locations are in three cities: Kyoto and Uji in Kyoto Prefecture and Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture. Thirteen are Buddhist temples; three are Shinto shrines and one is a castle. The properties include 38 buildings designated by the Japanese Government as National Treasures as well as 160 designated as Important Cultural Properties with eight gardens designated as Special Places of Scenic Beauty and four designated as Places of Scenic Beauty. UNESCO listed the site as World Heritage in 1994.

Kyoto (京都, Kyōto^?) ([kjoːto]) is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.

Along with Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples are the most numerous, famous, and important religious buildings in Japan. The Japanese word for a Buddhist temple is tera (寺^?), and the same kanji also has the pronunciation ji, so temple names often end with -ji or -dera. There are a number of other variations such as -in. Famous temples in Japan including Enryaku-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, and Kotoku-in illustrate the naming patterns.