Ginkgo Avenue Autumn — Tokyo Japan
The ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) avenue autumn colour in Tokyo's Jingu Gaien and the Showa Kinen Park — the street-lining ginkgo trees turning simultaneously vivid yellow from late October through November, the fan-shaped leaves' golden colour against the grey Tokyo sky creating one of the world's most dramatically urban autumn colour experiences. The Jingu Gaien's 300-metre ginkgo avenue (planted 1919, the trees 20 metres tall) creates a tunnel of solid gold when backlit by the afternoon sun, and the combination of the yellow leaf fall (the ginkgo drops all its leaves within a few days, creating a golden carpet on the pavement) and the crowds of visitors photographing the simultaneous colour and fall creates one of Tokyo's most celebrated seasonal events. The ginkgo's status as a 'living fossil' (unchanged from 270-million-year-old fossils, the only survivor of an entire order of plants) gives the colour encounter an evolutionary depth that the cherry blossom's more recent evolutionary history lacks.
About this spectacle
Standing beneath the Jingu Gaien's 300-metre ginkgo avenue in mid-to-late November, visitors are enveloped in a tunnel of solid gold. The 20-metre-tall trees, planted in 1919, arch overhead and — when the afternoon sun backlights the canopy — every fan-shaped leaf glows amber-yellow against Tokyo's grey urban sky. The spectacle is intensified by the ginkgo's habit of shedding almost simultaneously: within the space of a few days the pavement becomes a continuous golden carpet, and the contrast of fallen yellow leaves against the dark asphalt draws photographers from across Japan. At peak colour the avenue hums with the sound of cameras, vendors, and rustling leaves. The Showa Kinen Park offers a quieter companion experience. What makes this particular yellow unique is the purity of the hue — ginkgos produce none of the red anthocyanins that confuse autumn palette; only a single, undiluted gold. The knowledge that these trees are evolutionary relics — survivors unchanged for 270 million years — adds an unusual contemplative dimension to the visual drama.
When to go
Jan — Dec, peak Oct — Nov
Getting there
Nearest airport: HND. Nearest city: Tokyo.
Booking options
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