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A 90-plus-year-old poplar on a Biei hillside, named after the couple in a 1972 Nissan Skyline commercial filmed right beside it — now one of Hokkaido's most photographed trees.
Ishimura, who runs Kita Kouboh — the coffee roastery already featured on this map — recommended this one in the same breath as the Seven Stars Tree, on a repeat visit from a traveler he knows. It’s a tall poplar standing alone on a hillside in Biei’s Okubo Kyosei district.
Why It’s Interesting
The tree is over 90 years old and stands more than 30 meters tall, but its fame comes from a 1972 television commercial for the Nissan Skyline, shot right beside it — the ad’s two characters, Ken and Mary, gave the tree its name, and it’s stuck as one of the enduring symbols of Biei’s hill country ever since. It’s a straightforward thing to look at — one very tall poplar in open farmland — but the scale and solitude are the whole point.
Best Time to Visit
Year-round, with the surrounding fields cycling through rape blossoms and lupines in early summer, autumn color, and snow in winter — the tree itself is the constant.
Getting There
About a 5-minute drive (roughly 2.5 km) from JR Biei Station; free parking is limited to a roadside pull-off across the street. It’s an easy pairing with the Seven Stars Tree on the same Patchwork Road loop.
🐿️ Cinnamon was here
Field report
Same tip as the oak on the other hill — Ishimura at Kita Kouboh again, this time naming two trees in one breath. I appreciate a source who does his homework.
This one is a poplar, over ninety years old and topping 30 meters, which from the ground looks less like a tree and more like a very tall, very green exclamation point. I got about a third of the way up before deciding gravity had opinions about squirrels my size, so I did my viewing from a low branch instead — rape blossoms and lupines all around the base, which the humans tell me means I was there at the right time of year.
Word among the tour groups is the tree gets its name from a 1972 car commercial filmed right here — I don't know what a Skyline is, but apparently it made this poplar famous enough to get its own parking situation. My tip: that parking is just a roadside pull-off across the street, so don't expect a lot.
— Cinnamon 🐿️
📸 Cinnamon's camera roll
Snapshots from our very good boy on the road.
Where it is
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The Blue Pond of Biei
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Gallery PuruPuru
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