Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, was last active in 1707. In the last one hundred years Japan has suffered from more than twenty major earthquakes , such as the quake in Kobe . Earthquakes , volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and typhoons are all too familiar to the Japanese people. The towns and cities are mainly squeezed into the flat lands along the coast, with very high levels of population density. The climate is tropical in the south and cooler in the north.
Humidity is high in the western regions of the main islands, with heavy rainstorms.
On the Pacific coast the weather is less extreme. Winter snowfalls are heavy in the north. Tokyo is the capital city. The cherry with its spring blossom is a particular favourite, although the national flower is the chrysanthemum. Japan's other flowering plants include wisteria, azaleas, peony and the lotus.