Awaji Island
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Awaji Island (Jp. 淡路島 Awajishima) is a 592.1 sq. km. 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 was originally called Awamichi (淡道), literary "the road to Awa province".
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.
Its city is Sumoto, Minami-Awaji a port on Osaka Bay.
Historically Awaji consists a 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 is the Naruto whirlpool between Naruto in Tokushima and Awaji Island.
The English soccer team stayed on Awaji during the Soccer World Cup 2002.
Ningyo joruri (puppet plays) are famous, and conducted at Naruto.
According to ancient myth, Awaji was the first one among born Japanese islands from two kami, Izanagi and Izanami.
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