Yokohama

No.5 Gingko

About autumn yellow leaves

What do people expect of autumn leaves in a city? The red leaves may not always match the urban scenery. The autumn leaves that match the city are the yellow and brilliant golden leaves of gingko street tree. The ginkgo leaves are colored from late November to early December in Tokyo, just before the season approaches from autumn to winter. At this time, cities in the Kanto region, such as Tokyo and Yokohama, turn golden or yellow. Branches that grew widely and yellow leaves scattered on the ground spread like a carpet. Nobody enjoys it with a sheet on the ground like a cherry blossom viewing in early spring, although average temperatures in Tokyo are not very different between April and November. The difference is the brightness of the sky and the bright feelings of going to summer. It’s the difference between autumn, when people are in the house, and spring, when they’re out.

From November to December, the ginkgo trees at Meiji Jingu Gaien are lit up at night when the brightness of autumn leaves reaches its peak. It’s not just a street decoration, it’s a large and vast piece of art. You don’t sit under a tree and enjoy it like a cherry blossom in spring. However, at the Jingu Gaien, an event called the Icho(gingko) Festival is being held in November, and there are many stalls. It’s a bliss to drink mulled wine there and walk the straight roads under a lot of street trees. It is not a flower viewing but a yellow leaf viewing.

By the way, ginkgo can be found in Europe. It is said that in the 17th century, seeds brought back from Nagasaki in Japan were cultivated and flowered in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Ginkgo has a strong property against fire, so it was planted a lot in Japan during the Edo period. In the later Great Kanto Earthquake, ginkgo had prevented fire spread, so many ginkgo trees were planted as street trees for disaster prevention.

570,000 ginkgo trees are planted as street trees in Japan as a whole, with the largest number by tree type. Fruits that fall in the fall (gingko) may cause unpleasant odors, so when adopting them for street trees, only male strains without fruits may be selected and planted. Ginkgo berries are delicious when eaten in chawan-mushi, but they smell a little when they are on the road.

Famous place for Ginkgo
Google Map (Meiji Jingu Gaien) https://goo.gl/maps/WiYtx4MYZ1GnKTer5
Google Map (Nippon Odori in Yokohama) https://goo.gl/maps/aqkA94B38kGAK1aNA

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