Japan
Ten regions across four main islands
▶ Play it onlineJapan is a long chain of mountainous islands, and four of them are big: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The pieces are the country's regions, from Hokkaido in the north through Tohoku, Kanto, Koshinetsu, Hokuriku, Tokai, Kinki and Chugoku to Shikoku and Kyushu. The 46 prefectures are too small to be pieces at this size, so their borders are carved into the regions instead. The Japan Alps rise down the middle of Honshu, and Hokkaido is white with snow. Okinawa and the far-off small islands are too far away to fit on the plate, so they are not on it.
What a child works out
- Japan is made of islands, and four of them are big.
- A country can be divided twice: into regions, and each region into prefectures.
- Mountains run down the middle of Japan, so the cities sit on the coasts.
A download, to print yourself
- A .3mf file with the colours already assigned
- One STL per piece, for any other slicer
- A print guide with the settings and the order to print in
- For your own use; the licence is in the download
What you need to print it
- A build plate that takes 176 × 250 mm: the Bambu Lab A1, P1S and X1C (256 mm) do, the A1 mini (180 mm) does not
- A multicolour setup such as an AMS, for the colours as designed
Printed it? Got an idea?
Send me photos of your print and I'll add them to this page — or tell me what you'd add, leave out or change on Japan.
The plate
- Pieces
- 10 pieces
- Plate
- 176 × 250 mm
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 9.0 km
- Vertical exaggeration
- × 10.69
- Thickness
- 8.8 mm
- Smallest piece
- 172 mm²
- Fit
- 0.35 mm clearance
- Material
- PLA, printed in Switzerland
B5 — the size of a school exercise book.
How much ground one millimetre of plate covers.
Height is stretched by this factor so the relief is readable at desk size.
Nothing is cut smaller than a child can pick up.
Printed in place, so every piece seats first time without sanding.
Every named piece
- Chugoku
- Hokkaido
- Hokuriku
- Kanto
- Kinki
- Koshinetsu
- Kyushu
- Shikoku
- Tohoku
- Tokai
More from Countries & States
See all →
Europe
Forty-five countries at real elevation
The political map, printed on the terrain it was drawn over. Forty-five pieces, from Andorra to Russia's western edge.
- Pieces
- 29 pieces
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 24.7 km
- Suitable for
- Ages 6 and up
- Price
- CHF 15.00
The United States
The lower forty-eight, and two pieces you would not expect
Fifty pieces. The straight western borders and the crooked eastern ones, over the ground that explains both.
- Pieces
- 46 pieces
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 20.1 km
- Suitable for
- Ages 6 and up
- Price
- CHF 15.00
North America
Nineteen countries, Panama to the Arctic
The continent as countries — including the Caribbean islands that are usually too small to cut.
- Pieces
- 6 pieces
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 49.3 km
- Suitable for
- Ages 6 and up
- Price
- CHF 15.00