Chuo-ku Tourism Association correspondent blog

"Good morning, sir,"
"Oh, bear-san, did you go somewhere to GW?"
"Yes, I've been caught by a oyster and have been staying at Fuji Five Lakes for one night by car."
"Well, it was good weather and the children would have been pleased." "I said by car, but wasn't it crowded along the way?"
"Yes, it was a bit congested at the Metropolitan Expressway, but I was able to run relatively smoothly. By the way, I found a little unfamiliar sign thanks to the traffic jam, and from the oysters, "What is that?" I was asked....」

"It was just above Nihonbashi heading for Shinjuku, and there was a" Nihonbashi Road Signpost ", so what do you know that? There is Nihonbashi right below, Nihonbashi is a Japanese loot, and it is a sign that Japan's roads have started from Nihonbashi since the Edo period! Even now, the word "Japan Road Mark" is embedded in the middle of Nihonbashi! "
When I said, "Dad, I know that in the social studies class, what I want to know is the" ah1 "sign written below!" It says Asian Highway, but ...?"...I'd like to ask you for your retirement....」

"Well, Kenbo was a big deal to notice that sign, yes, that AH1 is an abbreviation of Asian Highway Asia Highway No. 1, that is, the Asia Highway also starts in Nihonbashi."

The AH1 Asia Highway Route 1 is a long road over 20,000 km, starting from Nihonbashi in Japan (Tokyo) to Turkey via Korea, North Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Iran, etc.
"Japan is also known as the modern Silk Road that goes through the highway to Fukuoka, then by ferry to Busan, South Korea, and then passes through Eurasian Continent to Europe. However, North Korea cannot pass now, there are areas where it is difficult to pass in combat areas such as Afghanistan, and there are many areas where it can be said to be rivers when it rains unpaved, and there are many areas where it can be said that can be called highways that can't pass through highways that can't pass through such as highways that can't pass through the entire Asian roads that can't be passed on highways.
http://www.mlit.go.jp/kokusai/kokusai_tk3_000071.html (Asia Highway, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism)

"Oh, I'd like to fly AH1 from Nihonbashi to Western Europe! But if it's 20,000 kilometers, it will take a month to Western Europe....」

"Yeah, I heard that the big husband of the dye shop 'Toraya' would never cross Nihonbashi?"
"Yeah, that person is also a stubborn, since the highway was built on Nihonbashi, "I don't care like a child straddling over the head of a parent whose car passes over my head!" says, "I don't want to cross Nihonbashi for a long time since the highway was built on Nihonbashi."
"No, I can understand that feeling, if I go over Ginza Street on the highway, I want to do a silver bra and it is thin!"
"By the way, why is the highway running right above Nihonbashi? You didn't have to go to such a place?"
Tokyo, which was destroyed by the war, gradually recovered, and the number of cars increased rapidly in Tokyo since the late 1950s, and the government decided to build an expressway in Tokyo in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. However, in the city center, the river and the moat were constructed in the capital highways by reclaiming the roads and moats that were relatively easy to construct.
"Oh, when I was a kid, the Sumida River was dirty and smelly!"

　
"By the way, in the Edo period, you carried luggage by boat on rivers and moats instead of cars, right?　If so, expressways take over old people's means of transportation in the present era! "
"Yes, in the town of Edo, moats and rivers ran vertically and horizontally, and a chokibune carrying boats and people came and went, and it was like Venice!　　In Tokyo during the high-growth period, even if rivers and moats were reclaimed, there were few oppositions because they were reclaimed, and it was an era when environmental rights such as landscape and sunshine rights were not often said! "
http://map.goo.ne.jp/map.php?MAP=E139.46.40.076N35.40.50.727&ZM=11&st=8 (Old Tokyo)

"Yes, if you said that you would pass a road over Nihonbashi right now, the scenery of protecting cultural properties will be bad, but a fierce opposition movement will occur and you will not be able to make a road!"
"But it's called the retirement, major earthquake directly below the capital, and the Metropolitan Expressway needs to be rebuilt 50 years after construction, right? How about returning to a moat or river as in the past, if you take it away all and move it underground? "
"Yes, underground is resistant to earthquakes, and construction costs may be incurred, but since the 'deep depth method' was established, compensation is not required in principle, so it may be realized unexpectedly early."
"If you do so, the great husband of the Tiger family may be able to cross Nihonbashi where you can see a heavenly path without a ceiling!　I hope it will be realized while my husband is alive!"
"Yes, then Chuo-ku may be able to register with World Heritage as a town that preserves Edo culture!"

Miharabashi Underground Shopping Center is located on Harumi-dori St., between Higashi-Ginza Station and Ginza Station in Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
There is a place where you can feel the Showa retro in less than 5 minutes from the intersection of Ginza 4-chome.

 
　Although the Horikawa River was reclaimed in December 1952, it is an underground shopping mall built under Harumi-dori St. with the bridge girder of Mihara Bridge remaining, and it has become a popular entertainment facility such as movie theaters, pachinko parlors, eating and drinking areas .
The Tokyo metropolitan government, which is a landowner, has decided to close its doors this month because of concerns about the earthquake resistance, and many stores have evacuated, and two stores that are still operating.
　However, activities to preserve and regenerate as the oldest existing underground shopping mall in Japan spread among experts and students, and architects and researchers who responded to the movement set up a meeting to think about the future of Miharabashi and consider creating a city that preserves the underground shopping mall.
　Kamejo Tsuchiura, a direct apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the Imperial Hotel, designed the underground shopping mall, said, "It is wasteful to be a living witness of the history of the city of water from Edo and the culture of the common people, and forget it as a thing of the past."...That's right.

　There is an entrance to the underground shopping mall tens of meters from Harumi-dori St., and when I got off, there were pink movie signs, a cup of drinkers, adult goods shops, pachinko parlors, ramen shops, etc., and when I was a high school student, I was thrilled and crossed the underground mall without any use.
　In the next few decades, I went nearby and did not stop by, and somehow, "Do you still have a movie theater?...I thought, but it would be strange that such an obscene place still remains just a few minutes from the middle of Ginza in the world where gorgeous buildings and luxury brand shops are gathered.
The modern beautiful building is good and the clean city Ginza is good, but it's fun to see people in an inorganic city that has an old underground shopping mall built near the site of Sanju-ma Horikawa.
　I hope you will keep the Miharabashi Underground Shopping Center.　If you are a fan of Edo novels without leaving the atmosphere that makes you feel the Showa retro, wouldn't it be possible to make you feel the former Edo Sanjuma Horikawa?...。
(Excerpted from the evening edition of the Tokyo Shimbun on March 26, the photo was borrowed from Wikipedia for a public domain image that was abandoned by copyright.)
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%8E%9F%E6%A9%8B%E5%9C%B0%E4%B8%8B%E8%A1%97

　Until the beginning of the 1940s, if you pass by the ticket gate on the premises of Kyobashi Station in Ginza Metro, you will find a love ho called Metro Hotel? There was a movie theater called Shimbashi Metro on the premises of Ginza Metro Shimbashi Station (now I don't know it's a wall, but it was on the left after going down the stairs on Ginza 8-chome side), and there were dozens of small shops such as laundry shops, barber shops, and toy shops on the premises leading to Shimbashi Station of JR.

　Ginza is up to eight-chome, but there is Ginza 9.　Here, the Shiodome River was reclaimed, and the lower part was a shopping street through the highway.
Before the landfill, there was a boat shop, a water bus boarding area for Asakusa, and at night there were stalls such as oden shops and ramen shops.

　Yes, "Ginza 9-chome is on the water....The song "song" became popular.　At that time, Ginza was a city where people could feel the breath of people without mistake.