  The nearby face-on spiral galaxy M101 has been observed with the Far-Infrared
Surveyor (FIS) onboard AKARI. The far-infrared four-band images reveal fine
spatial structures of M101, which include global spiral patterns, giant HII
regions embedded in outer spiral arms, and a bar-like feature crossing the
center. The spectral energy distribution of the whole galaxy shows the presence
of the cold dust component (18 K) in addition to the warm dust component (55
K). The distribution of the cold dust is mostly concentrated near the center,
and exhibits smoothly distributed over the entire extent of the galaxy, whereas
the distribution of the warm dust indicates some correlation with the spiral
arms, and has spotty structures such as four distinctive bright spots in the
outer disk in addition to a bar-like feature near the center tracing the CO
intensity map. The star-formation activity of the giant HII regions that
spatially correspond to the former bright spots is found to be significantly
higher than that of the rest of the galaxy. The latter warm dust distribution
implies that there are significant star-formation activities in the entire bar
filled with molecular clouds. Unlike our Galaxy, M101 is a peculiar normal
galaxy with extraordinary active star-forming regions.
