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In this episode, we traveled on Shutoko (Shuto Expressway), and drove through Ginza & Marunouchi.

00:10 Shutoko Wangan Line
07:58 Harumi, Chuo Ward
09:56 Kachidoki Bridge
14:42 Kyobashi, Chuo Ward
16:03 Ginza, Chuo Ward
24:34 Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ward

About Shutoko (Shuto Expressway)
Shuto Expressway (首都高速道路, Shuto Kōsoku-dōro, lit. “Metropolitan Expressway”, where shuto also means “capital city”) is a network of toll expressways in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is operated and maintained by the Metropolitan Expressway Company Limited (首都高速道路株式会社, Shuto Kōsoku-dōro Kabushiki-gaisha).

Most routes are grade-separated (elevated roads or tunnels) and central routes have many sharp curves and multi-lane merges that require caution to drive safely. The speed limit is 60 km/h on most routes, but 80 km/h on the Bayshore Route, and 50 km/h on the Inner Circular Route.

About Kyobashi
Kyōbashi is a neighborhood east of Tokyo Station in Chūō, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the city’s oldest commercial districts, although it has since been eclipsed by Ginza to the south and Nihonbashi to the north. Kyōbashi and Takarachō stations provide subway service. Its name comes from the bridge that once spanned the Kyōbashi Canal. The south side of the canal was called Take-Gashi(Bamboo Quay)because it was bamboo wholesalers’ area.

The Kyōbashi, or Capital Bridge, linked the Ginza and the Kyōbashi neighborhood. According to the sign erected at the site by the Chuo-ku Board of Education, together with Nihonbashi, it was one of the famous bridges of Edo. When the canal was filled in 1959, the bridge was removed. Today, a pillar stands to mark the site of the old bridge.

Kyobashi was also a ward of Tokyo City, encompassing 16 neighborhoods, including Ginza, Tsukiji, and Tsukishima, in addition to Kyobashi itself. In 1947, when the 35 wards of Tokyo were reorganized into 23, it was merged with Nihonbashi to form the modern Chuo ward.

Kyobashi, together with Nihonbashi and Kanda, is the core of Shitamachi, the original downtown center of Edo-Tokyo, before the rise of newer secondary centers such as Shinjuku and Shibuya.

Meidi-Ya, an upscale grocery store chain, has its headquarters in this area.

About Ginza
Ginza (/ˈɡɪnzə/ GHIN-zə; Japanese: 銀座 [ɡindza]) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo, with numerous internationally renowned department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses located in its vicinity. It is considered to be one of the most expensive, elegant, and luxurious streets in the world.

Ginza was a part of the old Kyobashi ward of Tokyo City, which, together with Nihonbashi and Kanda, formed the core of Shitamachi, the original downtown center of Edo-Tokyo.

Ginza was built upon a former swamp that was filled in during the 16th century. The name Ginza comes after the establishment of a silver-coin mint established there in 1612, during the Edo period.

After a devastating fire in 1872 burned down most of the area, the Meiji government designated the Ginza area as a “model of modernization.” The government planned the construction of fireproof brick buildings and larger, better streets connecting Shimbashi Station all the way to the foreign concession in Tsukiji.

Soon after the fire, redevelopment schemes were prepared by Colin Alexander McVean[3] a chief surveyor of the Public Works under direction of Yamao Yozo, but execution designs were provided by the Irish-born engineer Thomas Waters; the Bureau of Construction of the Ministry of Finance was in charge of construction. In the following year, a Western-style shopping promenade on the street from the Shinbashi bridge to the Kyōbashi bridge in the southwestern part of Chūō with two- and three-story Georgian brick buildings was completed.

About Marunouchi
Marunouchi (丸の内) is a commercial district of Tokyo located in Chiyoda between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning “inside the circle”, derives from its location within the palace’s outer moat. It is also Tokyo’s financial district and the country’s three largest banks are headquartered there.

In 1590, before Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo Castle, the area now known as Marunouchi was an inlet of Edo Bay and had the name Hibiya. With the expansion of the castle, this inlet was filled, beginning in 1592.

#tokyosmith #drive #japan

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