[For Elementary School Students] Country Names in Kanji Quiz. A quick, fun quiz

Philippines

The Philippines consists of more than 7,000 islands. As a country surrounded by the sea, it’s popular with tourists for marine sports like diving and surfing. As for the kanji that represent “the Philippines,” reading each character with its on-yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) seems to lead you to the answer!

Brazil

Brazil is famous for Rio’s Carnival, which bursts with samba. Carnivals are held not only in Rio but across the country, and sometimes last for about a week. Seeing the dancers perform so brightly and with such joyful smiles makes you want to join in and dance too!

Turkey

Each of the kanji can be read as phonetic ateji in “土耳古” (Turkey). “耳” was chosen because, when pronounced in Chinese, its sound is close to the “ru” in “Turko/Turkey.” Kebab, which is also popular in Japan, originated in Turkey and includes dishes such as shish kebab, where meat is skewered on metal spits, and doner kebab, where the meat is cooked on a rotating spit.

Netherlands

When you think of the Netherlands, the vividly colored tulip fields are truly striking. Those tulip fields are located in a place called Keukenhof Park, which is said to have originally been the garden of a mansion built by an admiral of the Dutch East India Company. Every spring, tourists from around the world visit in search of its beautiful tulips.

Spain

The reason these characters are used is that Spain and Portugal are read as “Hispania” in Latin, which becomes “西班牙” when written in Chinese. Speaking of Spain, the tomato-throwing “Tomatina” held every August is famous, and it is said that over 100 tons of tomatoes are used each year.