It’s just my guess.
I’m wondering if the country name “Canada” related to Japanese “kanata”.
Let me explain why I think so.
I was reading a book. It said,
“The name ‘Canada’ comes from the Huron-Iroquois word ‘kanata’ meaning village or settlement, and the name was used by the early explorer Jacques Cartier. The word Canada started appearing on maps in the 1550s”
When I was in NL, Canada, I visited a museum.
There’s an exhibition about Inuits, the aboriginal people in Canada.
When I saw the exhibition, I was so surprised.
The face, body, hair style, clothes, tools- they look like Ainu, aboriginal people in Hokkaido, Japan.
Inuit or Inu, and Ainu sounds similar, too.
I started wondering if they might have same origin in long time ago.
Because a long time ago, the northern part of Japan connected to eastern part of Russia, and Russia connected to Alaska, and from Alaska people might have migrated to Canada.
“kanata/ 彼方/ かなた” means far away in Japanese.
A long, long time ago, if people start moving from Japan to “far away” Canada- it makes sense to me.
Imagining these things interests me.
Akari Talks Japan 