The 17th Century Nihonbashi District

Nihonbashi (日本橋) literally mean Japan Bridge, is one of famous business/financial districts in Tokyo. Historically, Tokyo in Japan grew up around the bridge which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in the year 1603, and the current bridge which was made of stone dated from 1911. The district covers a huge area to the north and east of the bridge, reaching Akihabara (North) and the Sumida River (East) adjacent to Asakusa Temple, Otemachi (West) and Ginza (South) (Wikipedia, 2013).

Several beautiful bronze statues were built on the each side of the bridge

The current bridge made of rock dated back to 1904 connects to the famous Sumida River adjacent to the Asakusa temple

Nihonbashi is also the place in Japan, whereby the Kilometer Zero is situated at. Kilometer Zero is a particular location from which distances are traditionally measured.

Kilometer Zero

As Nihonbashi is a Business/Financial District, it is also a home to several banking corporations

On the left is the Mitsui tower and the structure that resembles Greek Parthenon is the Mitsui Sumitomo Banking Corporation.  To those who have watched Hanzawa Naoki, the record breaking hit Japanese drama about a banker, this building is used as the Tokyo Chuo Bank in the drama. 

Bank of Japan

The Bank of Japan which is the central bank of Japan is also headquartered at Nihonbashi. The building was the former site of gold mint. The Neo-baroque architecture was designed by Tatsuno Kingo in 1896 (Wikipedia, 2013). 

As Nihonbashi is considered by many Japanese as a posh area, high class shopping centres are also found there. Two of the most famous are Mitsukoshi and Takashimaya. 

Mitsukoshi is an international department store chain with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, which also owns the Isetan department store chain and its parent company is the Mitsui Conglomerate Group with another famous corporations/banking such as the Mitsui Sumitomo Forestry, Mitsui Sumitomo Banking Corportation etc. 

That's me at the entrance of one of the Mitsukoshi's Department Store