Even if you don't arrive in Tokyo, chances are you will end up here or pass through on your way to other parts of Japan, since the capital is the major transport hub . Every day, scores of Shinkansen (bullet trains) speed up to the far north of Honsho or south to Kyushu, while flights, buses and ferries connect Tokyo to the far-flung corners and islands of the Japanese archipelago.
The only time Tokyo is best avoided is during the steamy height of summer in August and early September, when the city's humidity sees its citizens scurrying from one air-conditioned haven to another. October and November, by contrast, are great months to take in the spectacular fireburst of autumn leaves in Tokyo's parks and gardens. Temperatures dip to freezing in the winter months, though the crisp blue skies are rarely disturbed by rain or snow showers. April is the month when Tokyoites love to party beneath the flurries of falling cherry blossoms - one of the best months to visit the capital. Carrying an umbrella is a good idea during tsuyu , the rainy season in June and September, when typhoons occasionally strike the coast.
Legend says that a giant catfish sleeps beneath Tokyo Bay, and its wriggling can be felt in the hundreds of small tremors that rumble the capital each year. Around every seventy years, the catfish awakes, resulting in the kind of major earthquake seen in 1995 in Kobe. There is a long-running, half-hearted debate about moving the Diet and main government offices out of Tokyo, away from danger. Yet, despite the fact that the city is well overdue for the Big One, talk of relocating the capital always comes to nothing. Now, more than ever before, Tokyo is the centre of Japan, and nobody wants to leave and miss any of the action.
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