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. 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.
Its only major city is Sumoto, a port on Osaka Bay.
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, Japan was born in Awaji.
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