Autumn in Tokyo this year feels a bit like autumn in Manchester. It’s been cloudy and rainy and cold when it’s usually blue skies with streaming, warm sun. What’s happening?

This Saturday we went to Koishikawa Botanical Garden in Bunkyo-ku. Wed never been before and I was surprised with how wild it was – normally a lot of gardens and parks here are either highly manicured spaces or just grass. It felt like an English park. It was quite busy in the main bit of the park, but if you went off exploring, you could find pockets of solitude. It ...