Experience the best of Kawasaki

Kawasaki is a long, narrow city stretching along the Tama River from Tokyo Bay into the hills, between Tokyo and Yokohama, with factories on the waterfront and suburbs inland. Kawasaki Daishi, the temple of Heiken-ji, draws crowds at New Year, and the street leading to it sells traditional sweets and hand-cut candy.

In the hills, the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum has thatched farmhouses moved from villages across the country, and the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum, devoted to the creator of Doraemon, stands in the north-west of the city. Yokohama's harbour and Tokyo are a short train ride away, and Kamakura, with its great bronze Buddha, is not much further.

Ramen shops, yakitori bars and izakaya cluster around the city's stations, much as they do across the Tokyo area. Cherry trees flower in late March and early April, summers are hot and humid, and the maples turn red in late November.