If you are unsure whether Kinki lies to the east or west of Chugoku, what the principal city of Kagawa is, or which prefectures are landlocked — rest assured that you are not alone. If we have one failing in common, it is geography.
How you look at the world, of course, depends on where you are coming from. Scale for one thing, is relative. If you hail as I do from Britain, then Japan is a big country. If you are from California, it will likely be the opposite.
The single commonality among all overseas visitors to these shores is the impression of depth and complexity, the sense that there is much more to be seen and experienced than the size of the nation would at first indicate.