JAPAN: In February of 1926, Mrs. David Phillips of Jackson Avenue shared a lengthy letter from her son, Harvey, who was making a trip around the world with two companions on a British freight steamer, The City of Bedford. The three were the only passengers on the cargo ship.

“As I write this, we are proceeding up a long bay to a small place called Miike, located on the island of Kiushiu, not far from the city of Nagasaki. At Miike we (load) coal (on the) ship before crossing over to Shanghai. Kyushu is the second largest of the four main Japanese islands. The largest is Hondo or the main island, nearly 1,500 miles long, on which are located nearly all the important cities. Then north of Hondo lies Yezo, and to the south lies Kiushiu and Shikoku. You will probably have difficulty finding Miike on any map, but it lies on a bay a little to the east of Nagasaki.

“To describe our ten days in Japan I will begin from the day of December 27th, and try to follow the outline from my diary. No sooner were we anchored in the harbor on the morning of December 28th, than innumerable lighters were coming alongside of us, sending on board about a hundred stevedores to start unloading the ship. We were ashore as soon as possible, first visiting a barber shop. Then we put away a square lunch at one of the two small temporary hotels built since the great quake and fire, and started out on a sightseeing tour. Yokohama is still badly wrecked and offers nothing of historical interest to see, so our time could largely be spent shopping and wandering around wherever we pleased.”

The letter will continue.