Henry J. Neils’
Travelogue of 1959 Great World Cruise
Henry J. Neils was a businessman from Minneapolis. He wrote a daily diary of his voyage on the 1959 Great World cruise. Presumably, the 30 faded typewritten sheets had been duplicated for distribution to his employees.
The transcribed document now forms 25 pages of the Timeline, accessible from links on the January, February, March and April 1959 month pages. This was the first special feature to be added to the Timeline as it entered its 2nd year of being on-line.
Henry's quoted text throughout the site start with this indicator: H.J.N.…
Henry J Neils’ Travelogue 10 April 1959
Yokohama, Japan
H.J.N.…
Clear - temperature 66°F.
At 6am, April 10, I was on deck as our ship entered the harbour. And what a harbour it is! Here, as in Kobe, there
are a series of seawalls protecting the outer and inner harbours and the piers. Again you see a very large port and
an industrial city of 1.2 million inhabitants.
However, this port is the terminal for commerce entering and leaving Tokyo, a city of eight million. Yokohama, like Kobe, was practically levelled by bombings and fire, but has been rebuilt completely, and enlarged.
Our tour begins at 9am. The buses are modern in every respect, just having been put into service. The driver and guide are excellent. It takes an hour to drive to Tokyo. You cannot distinguish the boundary except for the river that separates the two cities. Our first stop is the Imperial Hotel.
H.J.N.…
Our guide, a Japanese woman, announces as we come to a halt in front of the Hotel, that Frank Lloyd-Wright had died.
What a shock was that announcement! What a co-incidence to have it made just as we ware entering the structure that
made this great architect so famous.
Frieda shed a few tears, and I had a big lump in my throat as we say farewell to a man whom we learned to love and admire as a result of his planning our home, and visiting us on several occasions, being our house-guest.
H.J.N.…
Our tour continues and takes us through various parts of this big city and to the park near the Imperial Palace grounds.
The streets are lined with spectators waiting to see the procession of Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko on the
occasion of their wedding.
It is a holiday. Dad, mother and the youngsters are all there. They come by streetcar, bus, auto, motorcycle, bicycle - but mostly on foot. They are great walkers and hill and mountain climbers. They wave flags and shout. Not in my life have I seen so many people.
Image: Cook's Shore Tour brochure
H.J.N.…
Near the park is the Meiji Shrine, with its historical paintings. We drive by the Diet Building, an imposing
structure; we see the building which housed the American Occupation Headquarters Staff; pass the Municipal Stadium which
seats 70.000, to be enlarged to 100,000 seats for the Olympic Games in 1966.
We see the Tokyo Tower, a steel structure for radio and television broadcasting 1,080 feet high - fifteen feet higher than Eiffel's Tower in Paris. We see buildings under construction everywhere.
The height limit is 105 feet because of earthquake exposure. Yes, Tokyo is a fascinating place and deserves more than a two-day visit.
After our return to the Caronia and dinner, we had a visit with Mrs. Horace E. Dodge of the automobile family by that name. She is eighty-nine, and still active enough to take a world cruise.
She tells us of the cable she has received from her grandson telling of the death of Mr. Wright. The grandson has been a student at Taliesen for five years, and has been to see our house in Minneapolis.
It's a small world, even if it takes 108 days to get around it on this cruise.