00:00:10 John Daub: This is Nihonbashi, I'm in the center of Tokyo. This is what the image looks like. I printed this out at home. It was made of wood originally. It connected the two sides of Edo at the time. This was called Edo Bridge before it was Nihonbashi, before the Nihon meaning Japan. Japan's bridge, it was Tokyo's bridge.

00:00:48 John Daub: I'm going to be explaining some of the history of this amazing bridge, which doesn't look so amazing anymore. I'm looking at it right now on the other side. This is what it originally looked like. This is a sort of a marker, this picture of what was once, and now is not. On the other side is Nihonbashi. Take a look. There it is. It does not look the same as in that picture anymore, does it?

00:01:16 John Daub: Nihonbashi is probably the most famous bridge in Japan. At least by the name, you can see there's a marker telling the name Nihonbashi. That road going over it is the highway. That's the highway that was built before the 1964 Olympics. There's a lot of history, a lot of reasons why Nihonbashi looks the way it does. I'm not a fan of the construction that happened in 1964 right before the Olympics to make this overpass. I studied Japanese history before I came to Japan a little bit in college. One of the things that really displeased me was seeing that image that I just showed you and then seeing what Nihonbashi looks like today.

00:02:05 John Daub: Despite all that, Nihonbashi is still a pretty cool place, not just because of the stores around and the fact that it's here in the center of Tokyo, but because there's a lot of history and things maybe that you have never seen before, even if you are Japanese and living here in Tokyo. So there's some things I'm going to introduce you to. First, I've got to wait for the red light. We're going to cross over to Nihonbashi, to the actual bridge.

00:02:39 John Daub: There up there is the marker. Nihonbashi. Very strong. But that right there is the highway. That's not Nihonbashi. This is. So, it's somewhat disingenuous. Okay, so I'm going to go into the history a little bit. This here is a lion. This part of the Nihonbashi was built in 1911. Prior to that, this was all wood, as you saw in the image that I showed you before that I printed out. This is all steel. And this here is all stone. So Nihonbashi in 1911, it was rebuilt out of stone and steel. The base of it is all stone and steel. You can see down here, all along the canal. It's so dark, isn't it? And Nihonbashi's got the shadows from the highway above. And it wasn't like this before the 1964 Olympics.

00:03:43 John Daub: The 1964 Olympics, I'm really mixed about because... Thank you very much for the super chat, Mr. Michael Palokias. I wanted to donate at least once. Thank you. I appreciate the super chats. The highway was created in 1964 because after World War II, there was a lot of reconstruction going on here in Tokyo. They rebuilt the city extremely fast. I mean, just in the Japanese way, it was done very quickly. But it wasn't done right. And the highways in Tokyo were built along the riverbeds because everywhere else had already been built. And the property owners, it would have been too hard to build it quickly. So what they did was they drained a lot of the riverbeds in Tokyo. And the highways that go around Tokyo, they follow the riverbeds. There's a stretch in Ginza that you can see very clearly. If you rent a car and you drive Tokyo, it's easy to see that. But I'm going to show you what I mean. If I turn the camera around, you can see how this highway above follows the river. And it loops all the way around. There's other areas where they've just completely drained the river and put the road where the river used to be. It's an ingenious way, maybe in 1964. But now in 2017, we're left with... Thank you very much for the super chat, Reverend 900. When are you coming to Mumbai? Hello from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Five dollars. I'm reading the super chats. Thank you very much for that. But I'm going to stick to the history and go back to the super chats and comments at the end of the stream.

00:05:23 John Daub: So in 1964, they quickly rebuilt Tokyo and made it the city of the future. But the problem was that the speed in which they built it also took away from some of the historical beauty of the city. And that can be seen most clearly here at Nihonbashi. Nihonbashi, again, what I showed you is the highway that loops around the city following the canal beds, the rivers. Tokyo is a canal city, but it's hard to see because you will find a lot of highways all over the place built above. All of them are earthquake protected, so if there is a quake, they will survive. There is a lot of stone here. Now, I showed you above here, this was made in 1911 and it's still here. So this is pretty cool. There is another marker saying Nihonbashi.

00:06:22 John Daub: Alright, so now we've established that Nihonbashi was made out of wood in the Edo period. Then in 1911, was built out of stone and metal and steel. And then in 1945, I'm now in the shadow of Nihonbashi. In 1945, they suffered what was historically the worst air raid in the history of war. Tokyo was absolutely flattened. It was pummeled by bombs and on a day in 1945, this bridge was destroyed. I mean it's made out of metal and stone so it's not completely destroyed but it was gone out of the river and you can see here this is something that a lot of people don't know about. There's still some scarring from the fires from 1945 that's still on the bridge. This patch here, a lot of people might not know it but it's discolored because of what happened during the bombing. At least this is what I've been told anyways. It's hard to know what's fact and what's not fact but after reporting on this bridge a couple of times I was told that that was leftover like a reminder like a scarring or burn mark from the bombing raids of 1945.

00:07:48 John Daub: There are little reminders all around the city of what happened during World War II when the city was flattened but at that time most things are built out of wood so they're gone and everything was rebuilt into the modern city that you see today but the things that were built out of stone you can still see the scarring and after this livestream I'm going to show you another historical point in Nihonbashi. But I'm not done with Nihonbashi. We still got a lot more to see. Nihonbashi is also became well this place became famous during I guess it was the Edo period around the 17th century when the Nakasendō (inland route) and the Tōkaidō (coastal route) which are the two main roads coming from Tokyo emanate going out towards Kyoto and Osaka. The Nakasendō, naka meaning inside, went into the mountains and that's the road that probably tougher course to take but the Tōkaidō that's the one that you will see the ukiyo-e prints of there were 53 or 54 stations I think it was 53 stations along the Tōkaidō all of those started that road started right here at Nihonbashi and I am affectionately pounding the stone here to say yeah this bridge has been through a lot since 1911. 106 years now.

00:09:16 John Daub: So the Nakasendō and the Tōkaidō start here. All highways leading to Tokyo start at this spot and I can find that spot in the center of the bridge and I'm going to go over there right now. That's the symbol that's a symbol of Nihonbashi the mark that represents that this is where all the highway starts okay. So I'm going to go back onto the other side because you probably shouldn't go into the middle of the road although this is a safe area. Wait for the lights. So this marker here down below this is the marker where Route 1 starts. Route 1 is the highway that goes from Tokyo to Kyoto and to Osaka and you can still see Route 1 on the maps. That road follows the original Tōkaidō. There's the Nakasendō that went inside but the marker does exist here in the center bridge and it's something that's easy to miss, isn't it. I'm going to go over the bridge and not know that there is a marker in the center of it.

00:10:52 John Daub: Behind me you can see the old district. This is the side that I came from. That's where Tokyo Station is located and everything there is very modern. A lot of banks, a lot of businesses with new money, more new international businesses. Over there that's more the old businesses the old department stores there. Mitsukoshi you can see that over here in the corner. Right there is Mitsukoshi, an old department store. So this is sort of the older side of Nihonbashi and this is the newer side where there's more international businesses and new money. So Nihonbashi really does separate the old and the new. That's just so much to this bridge that I want to tell you. It's such a mix of styles but just recently in the last I want to say two or three years the bridge has had something of a resurgence in conversation within the Japanese public and I've been sort of vocal as well and thank you Nosh Abroad. I've been sort of in this moment of wanting to clean up Nihonbashi. They have here now tours that you can take along the canal. This tour was not here two or three years ago. I'm pretty sure of it. In fact right over there is an information center. This is brand-new as well. This was not here two or three years ago.

00:12:28 John Daub: I'm so happy that one of the results of having the Olympics come here in 2020 is a debate, and this is a big debate, on what they should do with the highways going over Nihonbashi. And my feeling is that they should do something else, because I do not like this highway going above me. You can see the historical old steel lanterns and gas lights that used to be. Now they're filled with LEDs. From Nihonbashi, there used to be a beautiful view of Mount Fuji. And Mount Fuji is over there in that direction. You could be historically in the center of the bridge, and you'd be able to get a view of Mount Fuji. That's probably not possible, even if you take these highways out. It's probably not possible to see Mount Fuji, because we have a lot of tall buildings now lining along this canal. There's an ambulance going by here, but I don't like the traffic going on around here. I'm not a big fan of this, the highways. And there's discussions right now on whether or not they should relocate this highway and put it underground. And I said, yes, put it underground. That's the way to go. Because if this is Japan's bridge, if this is Nihonbashi, and this is the most important bridge in Japan, it's got to look beautiful. It's got to look good. This country is beautiful. This country is too beautiful everywhere not to have this over it. We've gone from something that was so beautiful from the Edo period, when I started this video, the image that I showed you, to this. And this is the way that Japan was in 1964. But this is 2017. And I'm predicting that you're going to see big changes in the next five years to this bridge. So this video, in a way, is a historical mark of what was here in 2017. I don't expect it to stay like this.

00:14:45 John Daub: But the bridge itself has a lot of beautiful aspects to it. And a lot of history, like the burn marks from the bombing raid of 1945. And the marker in the center of it. And there's a plaque over there that will read and will declare a statement about the bridge as well. So there you have it, Nihonbashi. Thank you, Max. I hope that this helps you with a little bit of information and history about a section of Japan that's pretty important. It's pretty important still today. For those who want to take a break from the bridge, there's a Starbucks over here. Of course. The New Mitsukoshi Department Store. There's a lot of famous knife shops this direction. And my next livestream is going to be over there. So if you're watching, stay tuned. I'm putting up a link right here later on so you can go to the next livestream. It's going to pop up.

00:15:48 John Daub: Ah, hey! Sorry, I didn't... Oh, it's okay. You don't have to cross the street to get pummeled by cars. You can see the marker here as well. This one is the marker from the highway that tells you this is Route 1. Most important road in Japan. And over here we have a visitor to Japan.

00:16:14 John Daub: Where are you from?

00:16:14 Caller (Drove): I'm from India.

00:16:15 John Daub: From India! Oh, such a beautiful place this is. I mean, I'm absolutely loving it. This is your first day here in Japan.

00:16:22 Caller (Drove): Yeah, my first day and I hopped up and I just stumbled upon and met Mr. John. I've been watching his videos for months just like you guys and wow, it's amazing.

00:16:33 John Daub: Amazing. Well, I appreciate that. Why did you come here to Nihonbashi? This is weird. I was starting this livestream and what was your name again?

00:16:41 Caller (Drove): Drove.

00:16:41 John Daub: Drove, okay. I was starting the livestream and Drove was over here. He goes, hey, I know you! And I go, wonderful! You want to be in the livestream? Just wait till the end. I want to go through all this information. But what brings you to Nihonbashi?

00:16:52 Caller (Drove): Nothing, I just took a random station and I came here. I was told obviously that this place is something but I had to explore on my own.

00:17:01 John Daub: Wow, this is pretty neat. So fate brought us together, brother. What is it about Tokyo, what is it about Japan that made you want to come to visit here?

00:17:11 Caller (Drove): I'm actually an architect so I came here for my internship. There's an architect called Sou Fujimoto.

00:17:17 John Daub: Okay.

00:17:17 Caller (Drove): So I'll be joining his office in a week or so. So yeah, I thought five, ten days it would be great to just explore before joining my office. And it's great.

00:17:30 John Daub: Pretty cool. So it's more and more, I think Japan's becoming more popular in India, would you say?

00:17:35 Caller (Drove): Yeah, I think probably because of the cultural roots that lie down and also because, I don't know, I think Indians are exploring more than they used to earlier so that is kind of bringing up a lot of Indians here.

00:17:49 John Daub: But the visa is still kind of hard to get, isn't it?

00:17:51 Caller (Drove): No, it took me three days to get it.

00:17:53 John Daub: No way!

00:17:54 Caller (Drove): Yeah. It used to be really, really hard and now… Yeah, it just took me three days. I gave all the documents and it was done.

00:18:00 John Daub: You have a work visa, right?

00:18:02 Caller (Drove): It doesn't matter.

00:18:03 John Daub: It doesn't matter?

00:18:04 Caller (Drove): No, not the work visa, yeah. I'm here on my business visa right now for three months and then it would be a business, I mean a work visa.

00:18:10 John Daub: Wait, can Indians just come here without a visa and just get a stamp on their passport?

00:18:14 Caller (Drove): I don't think so.

00:18:15 John Daub: See, that's a problem because I can do that as an American.

00:18:18 Caller (Drove): Yeah, obviously. I just get the stamp. Obviously, yeah. So there are a few restrictions when it comes to Indians going to different countries.

00:18:24 John Daub: Probably a lot of restrictions when you go to Europe or somewhere like probably France.

00:18:29 Caller (Drove): I was there two years back and then it took me like a month to get it. But like here, it was pretty easy.

00:18:36 John Daub: Good. That makes me really happy to hear because I had friends who had a tough time getting a visa. So why do you need a visa?

00:18:43 Caller (Drove): Probably because of the holiday visa, I guess. That's kind of difficult for you guys.

00:18:49 John Daub: So it's a pretty cool bridge. So I'm going to end this livestream. I really appreciate everybody tuning in. It's nice to meet you, Drove.

00:18:57 Caller (Drove): Drove, yes.

00:18:58 John Daub: Yes. I appreciate everybody tuning into this livestream. If you do come to Tokyo, come to Nihonbashi. You can see some history, leftover traces from World War II. You can also see where all the highways in Japan start. And if you see that image that I showed you in the beginning, that all started right here. The Tōkaidō and the Nakasendō. It's a big part of Japan. So thank you very much for joining us. I'm going to turn the camera around for the next 20 seconds. Take a look at beautiful Nihonbashi.