For the rest of the world all roads might lead to Rome, but in Japan all roads lead to Nihonbashi. Just as the Milliarium Aureum (Golden Milestone) delineated the point from which all distances were measured in the Roman Empire, there is a monument to one side of Nihonbashi Bridge that marks the "zero kilometer" equivalent for Japan. Beginning in the Edo Period (1603-1868) the famously well-maintained and extensive highway system, the Gokaido, spread out from Nihonbashi to facilitate travel across Japan. As a result, Edo (now Tokyo) became a cultural — and culinary — melting pot, and Nihonbashi, as a mixed-use district of entertainment, finance and trade, was quite literally at its center. For good reason, it was known as the "kitchen of Edo."