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This is the east-central part of the great city, the district called Nihobashi-ku, in which are located many of the finest shops for the sale of precious porcelain and cloisonné were, ivories, silks, embroideries and mediaeval curios.  The palace of the Mikado lies ahead towards the west- so do the principal government offices and the War and Navy Departments; the foreign legations are off at the southwest.  They say Tokyo covers one hundred square miles; there are nearly 1,500,000 people here and native houses almost never exceed two stories in height.  From this particular standpoint you see few trees, but the city on the whole is unusually wooded.
The buildings along this canal are chiefly warehouses and shops. Horses are few; such local freighting as cannot be managed by these canals,which form a net-work over the central business districts, must be handled by men with long carrying-poles, the load divided into parcels and hung from the balanced ends of a pole.
How plainly you can see every seam in these unpainted, weather-beaten boats and the details of their cargoes! It is a common thing for boatmen on such craft to wear cotton clothing gorgeously imprinted with the name of the employing firm in quaint, decorative characters. Notice how thick are the telegraph and telephone lines; you can read there a hint of the volume of business that Tokyo has to attend to.
Shop-keepers here use the soroban (a frame full of wire-strung beads) for making even the simplest mathematical calculations, but, as education extends according to western standards that time-honored aid to multiplication will probably go out of fashion.  Trade has until lately been exclusively in the hands of the lower classes.  Now men of ancient lineage and proud traditions are coming to see that business may be made an honorable calling.
(See Ransome's "Japan in Transition," Scherer's "Japan Today," etc.)
From Notes of Travel, No. 9, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.

A busy freight canal in Tokyo, Japan.
Canal de frêt remaunt à Japon.
Geschästeger Fracht Kanal in Tokio, Japan.
Canal de flete activo en Tokyo, Japón.
En liflig fraktkanal i Tokio, Japan.
Kипyчiй дѣятeлънocтью тpaнcпopтный Kaнaлъ въ Toкio, 	Япoнiя.

Transcription Notes:
not sure on the cyrillic