For the foreign travelers who are not satisfied with the bus tour in Tokyo.

Nihonbashi / Central Bridge and financial center of Japan

Nihonbashi - Financial center of Japan (Sept. 2010)

Nihonbashi is a name of bridge which was built at the center of Japan in 17th century.
The 5 major routes to Kyoto, north, etc, in Edo period (17-19th century) started here.
Even now, this is the zero mile point for all the cities in Japan.
This existing bridge is a reconstruction in 1911.





The is the zero mile point sign.





The sad thing is that this historical place is covered by the Metropolitan Expressway !

Nihonbashi has been a shopping district from Edo period and you can find
Mitsukoshi Departmentstore, former kimono shop opened in 1673, still in the same place !





Inside of Mitsukoshi is nicely decorated with art-deco style.





There was a coinage mint in Edo period and there is Bank of Japan.
This is the former main building built in 1896 designed by
Kingo Tatsuno, same architect who designed Tokyo Station..





The following is the new main building of Bank of Japan.





You can also find Tokyo Stock Exchange near here.





You can visit inside from 9 to 16:30 on weekday.
Now, the deal is done by the machine, so it is very quiet inside.