Kyoto is a city in the central part of the island of Honshu, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital ofKyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area. Ranked as the 11th of the world's most livable cities in the magazineMonocle in 2012, Kyoto was praised for its history and compact city solutions such as its own subway system.
Kyoto has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), featuring a marked seasonal variation in temperature and precipitation. Summers are hot and humid, though contrarily, winters are relatively cold with occasional snowfall. Kyoto's rain season begins around the middle of June and lasts until the end of July, yielding to a hot and sunny latter half of the summer. Kyoto, along with most of the Pacific coast and central areas of Japan is prone to typhoons during September and October.
