cloying summer

Hi Sue,

Sapporo's warm welcome | The Japan Times Online

With just enough time left for a quick souvenir dash, I loaded up on fresh Hokkaido cheese at the Hug market store ([011] 242-8989; æœ*幌狸小路の飲食店・北海道産食材なら道産食彩HUG) at Tanuki Koji, boxes of Shiroi Koibito chocolate biscuits and packs of Sumire ramen before returning to New Chitose Airport for the 100-minute flight back to Haneda and Tokyo's cloying summer. I slept from takeoff to touchdown, and dreamed of Hokkaido's wide-open sky.

Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary

cloying
too sweet, pleasant, or emotional
- a cloying romantic comedy
- After a while, the softness of his voice becomes cloying.

With the word "cloying," is the writer just avoiding stating directly that Tokyo's summer is terrible?