Shinrin
The Shinrin {forest} continent is the second largest landmass on the surface of Nejiro. It is 19.573 million square kilometers in area, and lies just seventeen degrees south of the equator at its most northern point. Earthquakes are common,as many as fifteen hundred are recorded yearly with magnitudes ranging from four to six occurring regularly and lessor tremors happening almost daily. The total population of the continent is approximately five million people with the highest densities in the cities of Majuro and Rainbow, alog with the Koizumi Dai Ichizoku landhold. The tropical climate supports wetland savannas, jungles, rainforests, and cloud forests with jungle highlands, hilly plains, grasslands and wetlands to the north. The south is dominated by mountains and rainforests all the way to the coastlines. The mean temperature is 25.2 degress celsius and the annual rainfall average is over five hundred centimeters. The dry season lasts from June thru November, and the wet season from December thru May, with monsoons common February through April, and typhoons most likely from December through March. There is a high level of biodiversity with over one million identified insect species, a large number of mammals and reptiles like ataru {hawkbats}, forest elephants, bears, tigers, deer, frogs, leopards, coywolves, alligators, lizards, macaques, gibbons, hares, snakes, dromosaurs {leopard size velociraptor like feathered reptiles}, boar, hema {river horse}, and rhino are common throughout the continent. There are more than six hundred bir species, several dozen species of dreigiau cymru {welsh dragons - scaled and feathered flying 'lizards'}, over fifty thousand plant species, and more than three thousand species of freshwater fish like water snakes, catfish, carp, arapaima, tambaqui (the best tasting fish in the world), piranha, eel, stingray, tansui shark {freaswater}, peacock bass, and vampire fish.
The Akashi Yama {redstone mountains} and the Tozai no Nettaiurin {living jewel rainforest} thrive in the south, occupying more than eleven million square kilometers of the continent. The rainforest is dense with an average canopy height of ninety four meters. The mountains are mainly composed of basalt, rhyolite, silica, quartz, andesite, aluminum, chromium, titanium, corundum, carbon, and gold. But the abundant amounts of red sandstone, rose quartz, hematite, iron, chalcedony, garnet, rutile, and red jadeite close to the surface gives them their signature color and paints many of the southern beaches in multiple shades of pink. Also found here , in small amounts exclusive to the continent, are the Hinohoseki {firegems} semi-prescious gemstones composed of black silica with inclusions of iridescent red, yellow, and orange minerals with an appearance similar to opal that are worth as much as fifteen thousand ryu per carat. The tallest peaks are Akai-Oka-san {mount red hill} at 4289 masl, followed by Tamayama {jade mountain} at 4195 masl. Akashi Yama has more than five hundred summits which range in height from two thousand masl to just over four thousand masl and an average height of three thousand masl. About ten percent of these are volcanoes, most are dormant, but there are sixty three still active volcanoes (mostly strato type) in the range. The most famous is Haku-san {mount haku - white mountain}, which is a shield volcano still actively forming the Gemini Hanto {twin peninsula}. It is located on the western side of the peninsula and is seven hundred sixty nine kilometers across with an elevation of two thousand sixty three masl. It continues to grow at a steady rate of several meters per year, and has oozed lava, steam, and smoke daily for the past thirty decades from several different vents that ultimately flow into Emerald Bay and the Same no Umi, and is generally covered by fog banks.
To the northeast is the Kusonokawa {river of grass} composed of hilly grasslands, tropical savanna, marshes, wetlands, rivers, lakes, estuaries, and beaches. Supercell Storms are common here (and over most hill and grassland landscapes across Nejiro) during the wet season. It is mostly occupied by amphibians, reptiles, snakes, turtles, and insects. In addition there are hundreds of bird species that make this their home, most noteably the oniwatori {king chicken}, the harrier owl, and madana starlings. Also several small mammal species like beaver, badgers, swiftfoxes, meerkat, painted dogs, minks, otters, and rats. There are also several dozen large herds of nihodia {four legged mammal of tawny brown or black color that resembles a deer but has the lower jaw of a boar with tusks nd moveable horns on its head that it can move forward lile a lance to defend and attack - some ranchers raise it domestically for its meat, horns, and fur}, gazelle, springbok, impalas, wild spotted horses, zebra, kabau {water buffalo}, aknata, and prides of saja {large tawny colored felines with manes}, hyena, alfahd {large, fast, spotted felines}. To the northwest is the Ran Jangala {orchid jungle}. The dense jungle covered highlands sit on hills and plateaus between six hundred and fifteen hundred meters above sea level with abundant fertile soil due to more than one hundred dormant and active volcanoes in the region. Unlike the rest of the continent the tropical highlands experience a more uniform amount of rainfall throughout the year and a temperature range that rarely varies from twenty four degrees celsius during the day, and nineteen degrees celsius after nightfall. There are plentiful bamboo, cocoa, coffee, sugar, and tea plantations, also tree, fruit, and nut groves. The Gakkel Ridge originates from a tectonic event millenia ago. It is seven thousand two hundred eighty five kilometers long and runs mostly parallel to the Flowerdale River and then curves north to the Saihokutan Hanto {northernmost peninsula}, (about thirteen hundred kilometers west of the city of Samar) and then continues through the ocean. There are several islands off the north coast of the continent that are the peaks of submerged Gakkel Ridge mountains breaking the surface. The Gakkel Ridge forms the border between the Ran Jangala and the lower elevations of the Kusonokawa.
Mori no shiro kara {from the forest castle} has been built on Crown lands {sans permission} in Shinrin (close to the border of the Koizumi Dai Ichizoku landhold), by Emmanuel Michel 'Ellis' Saganami-Dubois {the favored only son of Matronaes Chiyo Saganami, Meiyo's grandaunt} after Meiyo's return from the DCA. The castle is on Mount Mignonette {jade green, emerald} (its peak is 3078 masl) a long dormant stratovolcano in the Akashi Yama {redstone mountains} mountain range amidst the Tozai no Nettaiurin {living jewel rainforest}. {the castle keep height is fifty meters plus the fifteen meter high sloped stone base plus the engineered ten meter high 'hill' it stands on, castle area one hundred eight ha, castle buffer zone one hundred forty six ha} The castle is an elaborate defensive structure built in the classic yamajiro style with modern materials and methods but of ancient design principles to current Nejiroan earthquake safety standards. {earthquakes of a magnitude of four or above are a frequent occurence on Shinrin} The fortifications are built atop multiple ridges and connected together with bridges and tunnels, the entire mountain is a stronghold with significant underground architecture built right into the mountain. The impressive multi-story castle keep is both aesthetically beautiful and militarily hardened with intricate multi-tier rooflines and white walls that signify strength and elegance. The castle is 'protected' by a multitude of gold plated Shachihoko {sea monster with the head of a dragon and the body of a carp that are powerful protectants and servants} in several different size scales, their broad fins and tails face up toward heaven and their dorsal fins with their numerous sharp spikes cover the roof ridges and defends the building while the heads spouting holes convey water to quench fires or direct rainwater away from the roofline and sides of the building {many are equiped with sensors, cameras, microphones, speakers and/or weapons (e.g. explosive, blades, laser, missile, ballistic weapons, gas etc.)}. The castle keep stands over five hundred meters above sea level on a flat engineered rock surface more than eight hundred meters from the pass {located between the canopy and emergent layer of the densely wooded tropical rainforest with numerous kapok and teak trees}, and you have to cross several dry moats with embankments. The steep stone steps leading to the main keep wind around the ridges and mountain several times and are protected by moats, turrets, towers, ramparts, and enclosures {that are mined with booby traps, hidden passages, firebreaks, and trap doors} that incorporates the natural igneous rock face. The steep curved walls of the castle resemble sensu {foldable fan}, and there is a network of more than one hundred buildings {e.g. water-towers, store-houses, gates, barbican, kitchens, brewery, garages, towers, corridors, offices, (hydraulic) landing platforms, residences, silos, shrines, (escape) tunnels, dojo, recreation facilities, bridges, turrets, wells, barracks, sento, armories etc.}, baileys, gardens, and narrow rambling pathways protected by fortified walls. Palisades line the top of the castle walls and are planted with pine trees to add to the beauty of the gardens and to obscure views of the inside of the compound. There are a variety of a number of incline constructed towers with multi-tiered roofs placed in many positions on the castle grounds as watchtowers and defensive positions but also as balconies that offer panoramic views of the moons and scenery, also as onsen, tea rooms, night rooms, orchards and gardens for the pleasure of the castle's 'lord' and retainers. There are three smaller subsidiary keeps which are directly connected to the main keep via corridors used as additional living quarters and defense mechanisms. The castle does not have a jokamachi {castle town}. {conditions are hot and humid with gentle to torrential rains of at least half a centimeter occurring more than two hundred fifty days of the year with foggy conditions on the days it doesen't rain, surrounding the castle is dense tropical rainforest tightly packed with flora and fauna in mountainous terrain, beware jaguars, tigers, loud and thieving monkeys, pythons, vipers, crocodiles, electric eels, piranha, parasitic fish, poison dart frogs, venomous insects, stinging trees, sandbox trees (that 'throw' explosive fruit with spiky poisonous two centimeter seeds at seventy meters per second), and poisonous and carnivorous plants}
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