In the Edo period, other than institutions established by the shogunate and domains, most schools were privately operated in teachers' houses and temples. In the Meiji period, as those schools were replaced by or transformed into modern institutions, teachers got required to walk to their workplaces. In Tokyo, after the first electrified trams were introduced in 1903, urban rail transit was becoming more and more popular. This 1910 Tokyo rail map shows heavy rails (black and white) and tramways (red) being expanded to cover the whole city.

The Ninth Annual Statistics of the City of Tokio (English) offers various statistics about the city in 1910. While Shinbashi, Shinagawa, Shoheibashi, Ueno and Ryogokubashi had thousands of passengers per day (frame 377-380), there were also 22,403 rickshaws, 12,547 bycicles and 82 automobiles in the city (frame 385). According to the Eleventh Annual Report on Education of the City of Tokio (English), out of all the 2,847 elementary school teachers in the city (Frame 32), 12 were provided with houses, and 831 received house allowances (Frame 42).

As for groceries, typical Japanese shopping streets had, and still have, retail stores usually specialized in rice, fish, vegetable, meat, confectionery, alcohol, etc for food/drink products. In a 1911 Tokyo business directory, food/drink dealers are categorized into drinking water, horsemeat, meat, hoshi-nori (dried nori), rice, pork, tea, poultry meat, seafood, kabayaki, kamaboko, katsuobushi (bonito flakes), confectionery, canned tsukemono (pickles), kanbutsu (dried food), soda water, soba (buckwheat noodles), sobako (soba flour), tsukemono, tsukudani, ramune, fish, fruit, beans, chicken eggs, chicken meat, grains, wheat flour, ice, mineral water, tempura, vegetable, candies, alcohol, "cider" (a kind of soda), sugar, milk, beef, miso, salt, soy sauce, shiruko, foodstuff, game meat, beer and sushi.

In Tokyo, important food products were first delivered into specialized wholesale markets, then distributed to second-level wholesalers retailers, and finally sold to retailers in every corner of the city. Major wholesale districts at that time were the Fukagawa Rice Market, the Nihonbashi Fish Market, and the Kanda Vegetable Market. All of them were located along canals, and products were mostly delivered by water, but rail transport was becoming more popular.

The 1910 research by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce gives statistics on fish delivered into the Nihonbashi market. Fish covered in the retail price table include kajiki (swordfish), katsuo (bonito), maguro (tuna), meji (Pacific bluefin tuna), tai (seabream), hirame (olive flounder), aji (horse mackerel), iwashi (sardine), sake (salmon), sawara (Japanese Spanish mackerel), nezumizame (salmon shark), karei (righteye flounder), squid, sanma (saury), saba, soda-katsuo (frigate tuna), konoshiro (dotted gizzard shad), shiko (Japanese anchovy), kohada (younger konoshiro), awabi (abalone), akagai, kurumaebi (kuruma prawn), ise-ebi (Japanese spiny lobster), shio-sake (salted salmon) and shio-soda (salted frigate tuna) (frame 80-81).

Though a decade late, the 1923 research materials on Tokyo vegitable markets discuss the volumes of vegetables and fruits dealt in the markets all over the city. Vegetables covered in the table include daikon (radishes), hoshi-daikon (dried daikon), kiriboshi-daikon (cut-dried daikon), carrots, gobō (burdock roots), turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tsukena (pickled greens) incl. kyōna (Japanese mustard greens) and hakusai (napa cabbages), komatsuna, satoimo (taros), nagaimo (Chinese yams), yamatoimo (Yamato yams), tamanegi (onions), negi (Welsh onions), eggplants, cucumbers, shirouri (Oriental pickling melons), pumpkins, tōgan (wax gourds), endōmame (peas), edamame (young soybeans), soramame (broad beans), bamboo shoots, kuwai (threeleaf arrowheads), renkon (lotus rhizomes), udo (spikenards), fuki (butterburs), seri (Java water dropworts), mitsuba (Japanese honeworts), spinaches, tomatoes, gingers, tsumamono (relishes) and moyashimono (forced sprouts?) (frame 69). The Fruits table includes apples, pears, mikan, natsu-mikan, peaches, ansu apricots, sumomo (Japanese plums), ume (Japanese apricots), cherries, strawberries, persimmons, hoshi-gaki (dried persimmons), grapes, loquats, watermelons, melons, and chestnuts (frame 79-78).