Wake Island is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, 1,501 miles east of Guam, 2,298 miles west of Honolulu, 1,991 miles southeast of Tokyo, 898 miles north of Majuro. The island is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, claimed by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Wake Island is one of the most isolated islands in the world and the nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 592 miles to the southeast. Wake Island, one of 14 U. S. insular areas, is administered by the United States Air Force under an agreement with the U. S. Department of the Interior; the center of activity on the atoll is at Wake Island Airfield, used as a mid-Pacific refueling stop for military aircraft and an emergency landing area. The 9,800-foot runway is the longest strategic runway in the Pacific islands. South of the runway is the Wake Island Launch Center, a missile launch site of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site operated by the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Missile Defense Agency.

About 94 people live on the island, access to it is restricted. Population fluctuates depending on operations being conducted by Missile Defense Agency activities. On December 8, 1941, American forces on the island were attacked by bombers from Japanese held bases on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, commencing the Battle of Wake Island On December 11, 1941, Wake was the site of the Empire's first unsuccessful amphibious attack on U. S. territory in World War II when U. S. Marines, with some US Navy personnel and civilians on the island, repelled an attempted Japanese invasion, sinking two enemy destroyers and a transport; the island fell to overwhelming Japanese forces 12 days in a second attack, this one with extensive support from Japanese carrier-based aircraft returning from the attack on Pearl Harbor's naval and air bases in Hawaii further east, sixteen days previously. Wake Island remained occupied by Japanese forces until the end of the war in September 1945; the submerged and emergent lands at the atoll are a unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Wake Island, together with eight other insular areas, comprises the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. They are collectively represented by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code UM. Wake Island derives its name from British sea captain Samuel Wake, who rediscovered the atoll in 1796 while in command of the Prince William Henry; the name is sometimes attributed to Captain William Wake, reported to have discovered the atoll from the Prince William Henry in 1792. Wake is located two-thirds of the way from Honolulu to Guam. Honolulu is 2,300 statute miles to 1,510 statute miles to the west. Midway is 1170 statute miles to the northeast; the closest land is the uninhabited Bokak Atoll 348 mi in the Marshall Islands, to the southeast. The atoll is to the west of the International date line and in the Wake Island Time Zone, the easternmost time zone in the United States, one day ahead of the 50 states.

Although Wake is called an island in the singular form, it is an atoll composed of three islets and a reef surrounding a central lagoon: Wake Island lies in the tropical zone, but is subject to periodic temperate storms during the winter. Sea surface temperatures are warm all year long, reaching above 80 °F in autumn. Typhoons pass over the island. On October 19, 1940, an unnamed typhoon hit Wake Island with 120 knots winds; this was the first recorded typhoon to hit the island since observations began in 1935. Super Typhoon Olive impacted Wake on September 1952 with wind speeds reaching 150 knots. Olive caused major flooding, destroyed 85% of its structures and caused $1.6 million in damage. On September 16, 1967, at 10:40 pm local time, the eye of Super Typhoon Sarah passed over the island. Sustained winds in the eyewall were 130 knots, from the north before the eye and from the south afterward. All non-reinforced structures were demolished. There were no serious injuries, the majority of the civilian population was evacuated after the storm.

On August 28, 2006, the United States Air Force evacuated all 188 residents and suspended all operations as category 5 Super Typhoon Ioke headed toward Wake. By August 31 the southwestern eyewall of the storm passed over the island, with winds well over 185 miles per hour, driving a 20 ft storm surge and waves directly into the lagoon inflicting major damage. A U. S. Air Force assessment and repair team returned to the island in September 2006 and restored limited function to the airfield and facilities leading to a full return to normal operations. Wake Island was first encountered by Europeans on October 2, 1568, by Spanish explorer and navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra. In 1567 Mendaña and his crew had set off on two ships, Los Reyes and Todos los Santos, from Callao, Peru, on an expedition to search for a gold-rich land in the South Pacific as mentioned in Inca tradition. After visiting Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, the expedition headed north and came upon Wake Island, "a low barren island, judged to be eight leagues in circumference".

Since the date – October 2, 1568 – was the eve of the fea

Kōzen-ji is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Tendai sect located in the city of Komagane, Japan. It is one of the five major Tendai temples in the Shinetsu region of Japan, its main image is a hibutsu statue of Fudō Myō-ō. The temple claims to have been founded in 860 AD by a disciple of Ennin; the temple enjoyed the support of the Takeda clan, that of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and received a 60 koku stipend for its upkeep by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. The temple was much reduced in size during the Meiji period, but many of its surviving structures date from the Edo period: - Hondō, reconstructed in 1851 Sanmon, reconstructed in 1848 Kyōzō, built in 1802 Benten-dō, built in the Muromachi period, National Important Cultural Property. Three-story Pagoda, reconstructed in 1808,17 meters tall, Nagano Prefectural Important Cultural Property Niōmon, containing Kongōrikishi statues dated 1528, Komagane City Tangible Cultural Property The temple is one of the sites associated with the Hayatarō Legend; the story has many variations, but is as follows: Some 700 years ago, at the temple of Kōzen-ji in the remote mountains, a wild mountain dog gave birth to three pups.

The priest of the temple took care of the animals, when the mother dog decided to return to the wilds, she left one of the pups behind out of gratitude to be a guardian of the temple. One day a village child was attacked by a wild animal and the dog rushed to his aid; the dog was named "Hayatarō", which means "Fast and Brave". Meanwhile, in Mitsuke in neighboring Tōtōmi Province, the farmers suffered from the depredations of some supernatural beast on their fields; every year, a white arrow was fired at random, the house nearest to where it landed was forced to make a human sacrifice of one child to prevent this disaster by placing the child in a white box at an abandoned temple. The child was never seen again. One day, a wandering monk was passing through the village and was disturbed by this custom, as the gods are benevolent and would never do such an evil thing, he hid behind a tree during the night of the sacrifice and saw some huge monkeys, so old that had become bakemono approach the child singing out "We hope that Hayatarō is not here.

Don't let know Hayatarō we are taking the child." The monk fled, spent several years looking for "Hayatarō" until he came upon Kōzen-ji and its guardian dog. On hearing the tale, the priest let him borrow Hayatarō. At the time of the next sacrifice, Hayatarō was placed in the white box instead of a child; when the monsters came, a great battle ensued. The following morning, the villagers found three dead bakemono, but no Hayatarō. Several days Hayatarō returned to Kōzen-ji, but was injured and died soon after reaching home; the priest made a fine grave for the heroic dog next to the temple's main hall, which remains to this day, The Japanese garden adjacent to the Main Hall of Kozen-ji has a layout influenced by the Zen master Rankei Dōryū. Believed to date to the Kamakura period, the garden was designated one of the National Places of Scenic Beauty of Japan in 1967; the designation includes the approach to the gardens, with its centuries-old trees, as forming part of the scenic structure of the garden.

List of Places of Scenic Beauty of Japan Media related to Kozenji at Wikimedia Commons Komagane city official site Kōzen-ji Official Site

Drivdalen is a river valley located in the municipality of Oppdal in Trøndelag county, Norway. The valley surrounds the river Driva; the European route E6 and the Dovre Line follow the river through much of the valley. The valley is the site of the "Old Kings' Road", Vårstigen, with Kongsvoll being one stop along the road; the valley runs north through Oppdal, at the mountain Allmannberget and the village of Oppdal, the valley turns west and heads into the neighboring municipality of Sunndal, where it is known as the Sunndalen valley. The Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park lies southwest and east of the valley. Drivdalen is known for its lush vegetation and is of special botanical importance with a number of rare species and varieties. In the southernmost part, where the valley starts at Dovrefjell is found the Kongsvoll Alpine Garden of the NTNU University Museum. List of rivers in Norway