Talk:Hinohara, Tokyo

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Mainland Tokyo sounds a bit strange, and I've never heard "mainland" applied to a city before. Is that what it's really called?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  10:29, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Tokyo is not a city! It includes the Izu Islands, Iwo Jima, and more. Check out ja:東京都 and in Item 1 (the Item 1 below the line) you'll see that Tokyo-to consists of the 23 special wards, the Tama region, and 島嶼 (とうしょ), "insular" Tokyo. Of course, cities can have islands too... but Tokyo is not a city. Fg2 10:55, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
You know I didn't mean to say city. I've never heard "mainland" applied to an urban mishmash before. I don't know how else you would refer to Tokyo-minus-the-islands, but there must be another way... freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  11:04, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
Hmmm... the Honshu part? "Honshu" meaning "mainland"... Help me out, I can't think of a better expression. Fg2 11:53, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
How about "continental Tokyo"? Continental Europe is often used to describe Europe minus the UK. "Inner Tokyo" sounds like the wards area of Tokyo to me.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  12:13, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
I found "mainland Tokyo" intuitive enough, but maybe because I know that the political entity called Tokyo includes a lot islands in the Pacific (the Izu/Bonin islands) and that there are municiplaties on those islands that are also classified as mura. Since nowhere in Japan is continental, I think that word would be even more confusing (and inaccurate to boot) than mainland, so maybe a different approach is called for: "the only village in mainland Metropolis of Tokyo/Tokyo prefecture/in the Metropolis of Tokyo with the exception of those on its offshore islands" or something along those lines. Jim_Lockhart 01:39, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Maybe something like "Although Tokyo includes villages on outlying islands, Hinohara is the only village in the part of Tokyo on Honshu (Japan's largest island)." would get the point across? Fg2 02:04, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Hmm... if there's no elegant way to say it then maybe just leave it? I agree with Lockhart that "continental" sounds almost as strange, though the dictionary insists the meaning is no different than "mainland", as opposed to being part of a continental shelf. I guess the most correct would be "Tokyo on Honshu", "Honshu Tokyo", or something along those lines, but I didn't really want to make the description so long, when most people will understand "mainland Tokyo" just fine.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  04:14, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Gave it a shot; see what you think. If readers have trouble understanding the expression, they can follow the link for an explanation (the same could be done with mainland, if you ask me, since—dictionary definitions notwithstanding—I don't think mainland has to necessarily be restricted to continental mainlands, especially not when context should make it clear that the point of reference is not continental (i.e., the term is relative in meaning).

Also took the opportunity to make a few other minor tweaks, including adding the more common orthography (e.g., road signs around here use the simplified character 桧 rather than 檜). HTH, Jim_Lockhart 06:23, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
The link to the appropriate section of Tokyo, should clarify things. Fg2 06:26, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Cool, learned a new adjective today.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  06:39, 25 May 2006 (UTC)