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I was wondering where is the best place in Japan to see the Ginkgo Biloba trees. My friend says there are many in and around Tokyo.

Are there many trees of this kind in other areas (e.g. Kyoto etc)? Or would they appear only in specific places...

It would be a shame to go to Japan and not see these beautiful trees!!

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    Japan is big and 'best' is rather unspecific, do you mean most accessible ? biggest ? most popular ?
    – blackbird
    Aug 15, 2016 at 15:10
  • It could just be one big/historic tree or numerous trees (so either/both). And yes, accessible.
    – John Smith
    Aug 15, 2016 at 19:07
  • There's a very nice one in the botanical garden in Cologne. Not very old obviously, only a few hundred years.
    – gnasher729
    Aug 15, 2016 at 22:58
  • Also females are nice because you can get the nuts. I have 2 male two female where I live in UK.
    – John Smith
    Aug 16, 2016 at 1:13
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    Incidentally - since I see you are from New York - there are a lot of ginkgo trees in Central Park. The Conservatory has marked theirs, but about 3% of street trees all over NYC are ginkgo.
    – Crashworks
    Aug 16, 2016 at 5:00

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While what constitutes a "best" spot is subjective, here are some popular options:

Icho Namiki

This road is located in Tokyo, between the Gaienmae and Aoyama-Itchome stations. The best time to visit is from mid-november to early december.

enter image description here

Rikugien garden

While this doesnt feature only Ginkgo trees, you can enjoy the view in this traditional japanese garden.

enter image description here

Nishi Honganji

The temple grounds feature many Ginkgo trees, plus you get so visit one of the biggest temples around.

enter image description here

The lesson here is that there aren't many dedicated spots for Ginkgo trees, but they are more or less omnipresent in Japan.

Visit during the end of november and you are sure to get your fill of beautiful colors.

Here is a resource page for other spots in Tokyo.

And here is the same page for Kyoto.

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  • OK thanks, so more or less every city will have nice Ginkgo trees dotted around, is my impression of what you are saying.
    – John Smith
    Aug 15, 2016 at 19:01
  • Yes, try to focus on parks and gardens as they are most likely to have them.
    – JS Lavertu
    Aug 15, 2016 at 19:06
  • Oh god, the Icho Namiki road must be horrible during the fall.
    – user3932000
    Aug 15, 2016 at 23:26
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    Any sources for your pictures? I feel like some of those could be awesome if they were originally a higher resolution.
    – Kevin Brown-Silva
    Aug 16, 2016 at 1:25
  • @kevin google image search... I never went in Japan during fall so I dont have any of my own, sadly.
    – JS Lavertu
    Aug 16, 2016 at 1:26
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Visit Toyko's Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden to experience the ginko tunnel in the Meiji-Jingu Gaien, the golden canopy and carpet the most glorious in the autumn.

enter image description here

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You could visit the biggest Ginkgo biloba tree in Japan. It is the Kitakanegasawa no Ichou.

It has a girth of about 22m, and is estimated to be over 1000 years old. In terms of girth, it is probably the second biggest tree in Japan (after the Kamoh no Ohkusu Camphor tree).

Kitakanegasawa no Ichou Photo By Aomorikuma, licensed as CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is near Kitakanegasawa Station, in Aomori Prefecture, at the northern end of Honshu.

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There are Ginkgo trees in a lot of areas of Japan. So it depends a lot on where you want to go otherwise. Since the other answers focus on Tokyo I will just throw some answers for the Kansai area.

Osaka:

There are many Ginkgo trees lining Midosuji which is the central street going from Namba to Umeda which is a nice stroll.

Autumn on Midosuju street

There are also Ginkgo trees as well as many other tree's such as maple in the Osaka castle garden which makes for a nice view.

Kyoto: There are many places in the central town and around temples. Such as kiyomizu-dera.

My favorite place in Kyoto for Autumn colors is Arashiyama. You can also take the Torokko which is a train that goes through the valley where you can see a lot of foliage. Then you can also take a boat ride on the river to get back to Arashiyama

Nara:

Nara park contains a lot of Ginkgo trees as well.

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There is also a famous gingko tree in Tokyo in the University of Tokyo (accessible to public).

enter image description here

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