China as well I believe. I was in Shanghai at the beginning of the year, and was pretty impressed by the historical buildings in The Bund. Gorgeous. And some yummy eats!
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I found the multi-layered clothing really interesting (wrapping up warm), and the fusion between Western and Eastern clothing on some of the men looked very cool.
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There are, um, reasons for that.
I’m going to send that someone I know who lived in Tokyo for years and has family there. With the question if she recognises any landmarks.
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The creative choice that struck me as weirdest: going to the effort to fabricate a new soundscape entirely from whole cloth, but then with the coloring making the weirdly conservative choice to only add the colors beige and brown. A weird concession to fake “old-timeyness” for a process ostensibly designed to make this footage feel more contemporary.
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There is this myth that Japan in that period (begin Meiji restoration) had been totally isolated from the rest of the world and knew very little of it.
In reality the educated elite of Japan had been studying western sciences and technology for almost two centuries through their contacts with the Dutch (Rangaku.) It is often not realised how many scientific books, models, instruments, charts, maps, globes, etc… came to Japan then and they were all researched and often translated and duplicated.
It is true that this knowledge had been controlled and limited during the Tokugawa Shogunate and only really saw practical application in the Meiji period when it became fashionable, and later historical events colour most histories of Japan of this period, but Japan was way more modern and knowledgeable before Perry than most people know.
Go ask the Russian navy about how backward Japan was then 
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It looks like the Sensoji hanamichi in Asakusa is in there.
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This certainly explains more of the retro-Victorian backdrop of Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.
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Absolutely; I’m aware of the Meiji Emperor’s openness to external influences and I’ve visited such very European civic buildings as Tokyo Station, but it was still jarring to see a street that strongly reminded me of St Petersburg. 
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Here’s another related video. I found it especially interesting .
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The giant lantern is Sensoji temple in Asakusa, Tokyo
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I have to say, it comes as a surprise that they had video in 1913.
;-p
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