I've lived in Japan for 20 years. This was an astonishingly well put together documentary that was considered and just...so beautifully crafted. I'm used to people bastardising, glamorising, and...well, *youtubing* the shit of of this place. You did none of this, and for that, you gave it so much more. Well done and easy sub.

As a Japanese who used to keep learning the history of how people build the city of Tokyo(Edo), this video is one of (if not) the best introductory documentary on this subject I’ve ever seen! You’ve done an amazing job. The things I love about this history which you don’t talk about in this particular video are the irony of the start of this city. The Shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa, was banished from the financial and religious center of the country, Kyoto and Osaka, by the then most powerful person, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, to this fishing village, later called Tokyo. Technically this place was given to him as a reward of a war but in reality it’s a banishment. It’s because Hideyoshi thought this place useless (it actually was at first) and could damage Ieyasu’s growing power in both the short and long term. But the history tells us this banishment backfired a lot and even has given a huge economic boost to Japan as a country for the last 400(!) years. This city started as the second center of this country, which has less ties with traditional aristocrats and temples and has become the place for newly powerful people ever since. The history of how this useless fishing village becomes one of the biggest city in the world is fascinating and worth learning for everyone who are interested in cities imo. So much fun there

I’ve lived in Tokyo for 108 years and I can’t believe how well put together this video is

I'm addicted to this channel.

BABE WAKE UP, NEW DANIEL STEINER MAP VIDEO JUST DROPPED

It is just amazing that as a non-Japanese speaker, Daniel presents all the historical facts and informations so correctly, that even the spiral developing strategy which is barely known by foreigners is perfectly shown in this well-made video. Nice job to Daniel and those who helped in completing this video!

I’m from Ochanomizu and went to go to the schools located in Ichigaya and Iidabashi, so I used to walk down the Sotobori (outer moat). It takes less time if you walk down the Yasukuni-dori (the road between the Nippon Budokan and Yasukuni shrine), but the view from Sotobori especially on the sunny day is so refreshing and awesome so I chose that way. Good memories.

Just returned from Japan and this video-thoughtful, respectful, educational-provided some wonderful context and insight in to the trip and experiences. First video I’ve seen of yours, but I subbed half-way through. Very cool, and high-quality!

Japan is an island by the sea filled with volcanoes, and it's BEAUTIFUL.

The way this video uses the structure and history of the city to understand each other - unparalleled. Maybe my favorite you’ve done yet, on a channel that’s been consistently illuminating. 🗾

Omg the Japanese tour guide guy is the nicest person i have ever heard…talking about his city with such passion, curiosity, yet with a lot of humility…plus i love his accent!!

I've lived in Tokyo for more than 30 years and live on the city's east side in reasonable walking distance of Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. As someone interested in urban history and urban design, I knew a reasonable amount of the information presented here. Even so, I learned more than a few things here. I'm very impressed and immediately subscribed after watching this. I look forward to watching more of these videos!

For me as a New Orleanian whose favorite city is Tokyo, you gotta imagine my excitement seeing my favorite two maps back to back. lol excellent work, keep doing what you’re doing!

3：55 背後に見える、赤いビルと黒いビルの間が按針通り ANJIN street。 「将軍 shogun」の三浦按針 William Adamsの屋敷跡です。

I love Tokyo but I really love the small country towns. You can really appreciate the older architecture there.

This channel needs to blow up so you can give us more content more frequent. These videos are so 🔥

I go to Tokyo every year for business and I wasn’t aware of any of this. You peaked my curiosity. I know what kind of walks I’m going to do next time and I know what to look for. Thank you.

Your Tour Guide was lovely

i am addicted to the way japan cities look. i don't know if its architecture or what, they just look like they're from another planet (in a good way) and i love it.

this vid is awesome. just came back from tokyo, stayed in akihabara, walked to ueno park, walked to the castle grounds, and saw the original odaiba. everything in the vid made sense of what i experienced.

Never thought that video about a map would make me wanna go to Tokyo. This and all of the other videos are absolutely incredible. Loved every freaking second of it. Tysm!

I was in Tokyo last week and visited Edo Castle. Thank you for enlightening me on the history of such an incredible city.

2 trivia’s that I love about the city of Tokyo 1. Aside from old stones, you can find old traces of waterways on modern-day roads of Tokyo. One of it is in Akihabara (yes, the anime capital), and there used to be a small port/ wharf there to unload goods from the ships. These small ports used to be scattered around east Tokyo, connected by the many waterways that acted like a modern-day highway. The harbor in Akihabara is said to be the place to unload fresh vegetables made in the outer rural areas of Tokyo, and these goods that were transported via the waterways fed the many mouths living in Tokyo. It also became the backbone of many commercial facilities in Edo, since it was far more easier to sell the goods unloaded at that port at that place. Although they were ranked last in the social status, merchants thrived in Edo period, creating the unique culture/ identity of Edo. 2. How the Meiji Restoration/ Great Kanto Earthquake affected the modern day sushi and tempura. Sushi and tempura used to be a relatively cheap street snack in the Edo period. Sushi (or Nigiri sushi if you want to be specific) used to be bigger in size, more akin to modern-day Onigiri. Tempura used to have a wooden skewer sticked in the ingredients so you can hold it in your hand. Both were made in stalls, and people would basically eat them as fast foods, while standing/ using their hands. When Meiji Restoration brought modern city building to Tokyo, these stalls were evacuated to small shops, and as a result, sushi and tempura were now eaten while sitting. This lead to the dishes becoming smaller in size, and much much more expensive. And the Great Kanto Earthquake made lots of people immigrate out of Tokyo, including the many sushi and tempura chefs. These chefs introduced sushi and tempura to the regions outside of Tokyo, and thanks to this, dishes that were once only known around Tokyo, became the symbol of Japanese cuisine.

What an excellent video! As a freelance tour guide, I always share this information in my introductory lecture about Tokyo. For me, someone who lives in rural Japan, understanding Tokyo's history and development helped to demystify its seemingly chaotic organization. You have explained it clearly and beautifully. Kudos! Also, your Japanese guide was fantastic. btw, it's Meiji Restoration. Typo.

Most fascinating channel/video on a topic I never even thought about! Keep it up, can't wait to keep watching!!!

That tour guide guy is a fantastic informal educator. Anyone working in a public-facing education setting could learn a lot from watching how well he does his thing.

Very nice video. The story of a city is expressed in its roads, zoning, and people. Understanding the city's and its culture are one and the same, and your series does the best job of it i've ever seen

literally my favorite channel currently. keep it up

I love the way you speak about urbanism in your videos How you explain the history of these places and all the context behind what we know today!!

Geography teacher here and past history student - I love the way you blend both in a well constructed video. I have saved this to show some of my students who appreciate Tokyo.

Great composition on this video, I'm glad I took a chance on it. Subscribed and looking forward to seeing more of your vids!

WE NEED THE PART 2 !!! Love how you simplified everything !

Love this. This kind of explanation makes it so much easier to see how a city is like a living organism

the emperor business trip joke was funny, great tour guide!

man the production of this video is so cool, so much effort put into this.

I can't say enough how well done this is! This was such a fascinating video thanks to the work that you put into it. Beautiful visuals, great flow and very engaging!

I am so here for this. Loving the content! Keep up the fantastic work

Thank you for breaking down this city in a way that is approachable. I want to visit Tokyo myself but the map is so intense and I don’t know where to begin. This is such a valuable resource to have. Seriously, awesome!

I’m only 9 mins in but I have to stop and thank you for this channel. Just enough information to be interesting and to learn from but not too much to overwhelm. THIS is the content KZfaq has needed and I’m grateful I found it and you.

I’m also gonna say that his sponsorships are incredibly shot and edited. Not like the other KZfaqrs that make a prerecorded, scripted ad that takes away from the video. Didn’t even have to skip this one because it was truly well edited into the right part of the video.

This video popped up in my recommendation and I'm so glad it did. This was a great video. I now have many more videos to binge watch.

I've lived in Tokyo for the last 5 years but I've learnt more on these 24 minutes than in 5 years! Amazing work man. Thank you!

what phenomenal content! Thank you for all your research on this. I really enjoyed learning about the factors influencing the map and the historical context. As someone from London, currently living in Japan, i appreciate this!

I adore this video in so many ways - mostly as an editor but also as an audience

Amazingly well put together video! Congrats!

So happy to see a new upload!

Well done, enormous amount of work has gone into this, appreciated!

What a great research! I am Japanese and learned a lot from this video. So impressed. Looking forward to watching more of your passionate studies!

Tremendous research and presentation Daniel. I visited this area some years ago, and would like to see it again with the fresh viewpoints from your work. Well done!

This was an extremely well put together insight into a fascinating topic. Kudos and looking forward to more!

Superbly researched and presented video done in a way to keep viewers interested

I was so excited for this video, bro! I'm addicted to this channel❤

always looking forward to your next videos

Just discovered you, one of the best produced videoson youtube. Will be a long time supporter. ❤ from India.

This is the best video I watched in 2024 so far. Very well-researched and enjoyable, keep it up!

Man i love these videos! Hope you become more popular soon, you deserve it 100%

Another brilliant video! 👏🏻 Tokyo is such a fascinating city, I wish this video was out before my trip in 2019

Just watched this. Well done... Really good job. Thank you for doing this, I'll be watching this again. Totemo yoi!

This was incredibly well researched and put together. Thank you.

Daniel is making me want to go back to cities I’ve already visited. Believe me, I’ve seen a lot of Tokyo’s map explainers, but none have been as well-done as Daniel’s.. 😫😫😫😫✨✨✨✨

Nice work and overall production. Informative and entertaining. My brother is moving to Tokyo in the fall and I am pretty excited to visit!

Phenomenal video as always, Daniel.

Absolutely phenomenal video as always. Engaging, entertaining and educational! Cheers mate

Incredibly interesting video! Very informative and well put. A pleasure to watch.

Awesome video, 2nd time I went to Tokyo we stayed at Nihonbashi area.. something that really clings to me about that area because I love how the bridges and the roadways meets up.

What an incredibly well-produced video. Kudos!

I love your content and presenting style. Keep creating cool stuff!

As an urbanism enthusiast, I found the content super interesting. Just subscribed, great job!

As a resident of Tokyo and Japan, I deeply loved this video. I loved learning more history of these places I visit regularly. Tbh, I would watch more if you did an hour or 4 hour long videos, 24 minutes isn’t really enough, but I obviously enjoyed it all the same. Also, your Japanese pronunciation was actually pretty decent for someone who doesn’t speak Japanese. Very well done. Anyhow, it seems people love your other videos, so is this video is any indication I will enjoy them too.

That was really enjoyable to watch and also so informative and I learned a lot I didn't know about even though I visited Tokyo a few times already. Great work and will scroll through your videos now and see what will catch my attention next.

Incredibly fascinating, thank you so much.

i love how well produced it all is, will hold up well against time

You have a way of finding the most interesting people to interview for these videos!

Haven't seen the video yet, but I know this will be an amazing video!!!

I'm currently expending 2 months here in Tokio, I'ven lost about a week, trying to explain myself why the city it's what it is. Your video it's a lot informative. Thank you a lot U explain everything good, I'm gonna explore more.

Well done - This is the first time I saw an English‐speaking video turn viewers’ eyes to those aspects of the region. As a Japanese person who grew up mainly in other parts of the country and moved to the region in recent years, Tōkyō is interesting because among modern buildings, various parts of it still hint at stories of what it was like 400 years ago, not just obvious attractions like shrines, but things such as how waterways are laid out and how towns are named, etc.

Great video! I really appreciate the effort you put into making this documentary.

Good video! Would like to see a sequel focusing on Tokyo's post-Meiji development. Would be really interesting to see how the train system grew and affected Tokyo's history.

The outro song from 22:23 to 23:33 is 2099 by Wave Saver for those curious. He also cut it out right as it gets good 😅

This was a greatly informative video. However, I hope that this is just part 1 of many videos on Tokyo as I sort of expected more parts of Tokyo to be explained.

Great video. Thank you. I learned a lot about a place I only briefly visited. I didn’t find Tokyo quiet though, I remember seemingly rush hour traffic beginning at 4:30 AM. And almost the entire city being packed with people.

Incredible video. Your work gets better and better with each episode. And perfect timing, as I’m immersed in the show Shogun

So the background of the story in the 2019 film "Weathering with You" that much of Edo was only reclaimed land is true. And so in the epilogue the low-lying areas in the eastern side of Tokyo were rightfully reclaimed by nature.

First time I’ve ever heard anyone describe Tokyo as “quiet”. A quick trip to Shinjuku would erase that idea, lol. Great video as always, Daniel.

Fantastic video! Looking forward to the next one!

I’m on a plane home from Tokyo right now. Last night I was walking to a Thai restaurant when I had to stop and kneel to take a rock out of my shoe. When I looked up and thought “Huh… 23:26 I wonder how those stones got here.” Watching this has given me a thorough case of the chills.

Hey, Daniel! Congrats for your awesome content! It's so incredible to learn history by looking at a map!

This video is so well done! Fascinating history.

I'm fairly familiar with both Japanese history and the history of Tokyo. Like some others here, I was familiar with a fair bit of this information, but your video managed to connect the dots beautifully and with nice depth. Well done.

Really great video. Amazing thing about Odaiba... it's still providing defense for Tokyo due to Gundam's presence!

dude what the hell is this channel?? hidden gem, and EASY sub. i love maps, cartography, and history.

LOVE your channel! Thanks for these awesome and informative videos.

this was in my recommended for ages, which is weird cuz it only came out a month ago...but fantastic video so glad i can be so thoroughly engaged

First time watching this channel. I'm impressed with your research and also consulting with experts. I'm also a fledgling tour guide so I found this very helpful! I live in western Tokyo (10 minutes west of Shinjuku by train) and my neighbourhood is like a labyrinth but if you go further west it's more grid-like.

This video auto-played for me and I'm glad, this is so refreshing (lots of westerners rehash the same things over and over) and the production quality is fantastic. Insta-subscribe! 💖

This is so informative! Thank you for explaining Tokyo's map, it's really helpful for an architecture student like me.

Very interesting, extremely well made to the finest details, really appreciate the work!

I came to Japan for a trip thinking Tokyo would just be my landing place and my leaving place. I absolutely fell in love with that city when I spent a few days there. I can’t explain it entirely but the train system, as complicated as it is, can get you from any point to any other point so efficiently and quickly that the city’s size is deceptive. You can get to the sleepier parts in half an hour, or you can go to Shibuya or Shinjuku if you want to go to the liveliest parts. It’s got anything and everything you could ever want and there are so many different vibes. It’s not just one experience, it’s countless experiences.

First video from you that I’ve seen and it was a masterpiece. Going to visit Tokyo again soon and have a new perspective of this city now. I’ll be sharing this video with my family so that they can put it all into perspective too. Thank-you Daniel!

Omg new map video. I live for these