What does the particle 'には’ mean?
I read some sentences which went like this: ’日本には。。。’ instead of ’日本に。。。’
eg: 日本には夏がきれいです。instead of: 日本に夏がきれいです。
What is the difference between the ’には’ and the ’に’ particle?
In a Japanese sentence, は is a topic marker. Both には and just に are grammatically correct, but using には brings more attention to the topic 日本. This is especially important if you're making a comparison.
For example, if I were to say このホテルには、プールがあります, it would mean 'In THIS hotel, there's a pool.' This may be in comparison to another hotel which has no pool.
このホテルにプールがあります is also grammatically correct, but it would be closer to 'There is a pool in this hotel.' Here the sentence is just stating a fact.