Thousands of amateur astronomers across Japan braved the cold early Monday to witness the Leonids meteor shower -- the biggest in decades.

Sky watchers noted some 2,000 meteors at around 2 a.m. and 3,000 after 3 a.m. at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, in Nagano Prefecture.

In Rikubetsu on Hokkaido, about 200 people observed some 100 meteors within a minute. More than 5,000 meteors were seen altogether at an observatory there.

The meteor shower was also visible in central Tokyo, where stars are often difficult to see due to interference from city lights.

The event is considered among the largest of the past few centuries, especially for Japan, which in recent years had observed such meteors averaging in the tens per hour.

The shower could be seen in many areas across Japan where the sky was clear.

About 2,000 spectators flocked to a parking lot near Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture; about 1,000 residents, including parents and children, assembled at a park in Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture; and some 3,000 people huddled in an open space in Hoshino, Fukuoka Prefecture.

Although the Leonids meteors are seen every year around this time, many amateur astronomers were anxiously awaiting Monday's display after British astronomers said there would be an extraordinary number of meteors visible in East Asia.

The astronomers predicted that about 8,000 meteors would be seen for about an hour during the peak.

The Leonids put on a large-scale show about once every 33 years. Others took place in 1833 and 1966.