Often described as Japan's mainland, Honshu is the largest island and has the highest population of all of the Japanese islands. The capital, Tokyo is located here.   With the greatest altitude range of any of Japan’s islands, Honshu supports the greatest range of habitats.  At its northernmost extent its mixed forests of deciduous trees and conifers resemble those further north in Hokkaido, while in the far south the evergreen laurel forests are similar to those in the sub-tropics.  Winter snows are heavy and deep along Honshu’s spine of mountains, while a dry Pacific climate dominates much of the rest of the island during winter.  In the south and west in particular, long hot summers are preceded by heavy rains and followed by the powerful typhoon season.  The combination of Japan’s seasonal and regional climatic pattern dictates the distributions of plants and animals, making travelling around the island particularly interesting.     Amidst the thousands of kilometres of urban and ribbon development, only the hardiest and most flexible species survive in a landscape dominated by man.  Brown-eared Bulbuls and Jungle Crows seem ever-present even in the heart of Tokyo and Osaka, but leave the city and you will find a fascinating diversity of natural wildlife.  Honshu shares links to the south with Kyushu and Shikoku, but endemic species have evolved here too.    Honshu makes up the main part of the range of the Japanese Macaque and a winter visit to the mountains of Nagano prefecture provides a unique opportunity to watch them bathing in hot-spring waters.  The goat/antelope-like Japanese Serow is an animal of forests where snows are deep in winter, and in the same region, in fast-flowing, cold rivers there lives one of Japan’s most extraordinary creatures – the Japanese Giant Salamander.  This, the largest of the world’s amphibians, is a lie and wait predator in a habitat that would be occupied by otters elsewhere.  High in the Japan Alps one finds not only spectacular views, but also a wonderful array of alpine flowers and butterflies, and an unexpected relict from the last ice-age – a small population of Ptarmigan, a grouse-like species known locally as the Thunder Bird.