The center of Tokyo is not a square or a tower or a statue, but a bridge. All distances from Tokyo are measured from this bridge, which is made of stone and bronze and called Nihonbashi, meaning “Japan Bridge.” A highway was built in haste in the 1960s, just before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and bathes the bridge’s old stone and road in shadow and darkness. Now, the space where the bridge straddles the river is ugly, and a professor, in 2006, put the bridge on an “Ugly Japan” list. But before there was the highway and ugliness and a Starbucks on the corner, Nihonbashi was made of wood, and Tokyo was called Edo.