Fall and Winter Fruit Trees

Japan has a temperate climate and in Tokyo the weather rarely gets below freezing, making it ideal for many fruit trees, above and beyond the famous flowering plums and cherries. Trees that actually produce fruit in the city include all varieties of citrus, persimmon, and even olive and caper trees. When you see a tree like the persimmon above, oddly growing amid the concrete a few blocks from Tokyo Midtown in Akasaka, you suddenly realize where the concept of Japanese flower arrangement, ikebana, with all its bare twigs and odd decorations, must have originated. And the citrus tree below, photographed in the Aoyama cemetery, is a living model of the tiny trees found in every full Girls' Day display, covered in gorgeous orange globes of fruit.