May 2018
I had never heard of Muroran before we signed on to do a trans Pacific cruise that stopped in Muroran(population: 88,000). The ship stopped there as a gateway to Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido island. Sapporo was basically a winter playground, and, no matter how hard they wanted me to believe there are other things to do year around, I never got tempted. So we decided to stay in town.
I give a huge point to the efforts of towns people for trying to welcome us. There were bands playing music by the dock, and some high school girls came out to invite the cruise passengers to their school where they would introduce us to the culture and language of Japan. The shuttle bus was not free(about $10 for the day), but there were English speaking volunteers at most of the bus stops to guide the visitors. There was supposed to be free Wifi at the dock, but it did not work well.
I suspect they chartered some buses to create the shuttle service(hence the $10 fee), and then printed out a flyer for people to take with. We stayed on the bus for the entire route to see what it was like. It didn’t seem like an old city, but it was not really modern either. I guess I could call it an ordinary town where nothing much happened. We took the bus back to downtown and ate at a small restaurant. It turned out to be a lunch counter where workers took their quick lunch break, and nothing special to note about it. We walked around a bit and got back on the bus. We tried some of the scenic spots mentioned on the flyer but were not too impressed. We tried hard, though, because the people of Muroran tried hard.
Back on the ship, we ran into some of the people who followed the school girls, and they said they had a real great time. They were served a Japanese meal and learned some Japanese words. If we ever go back, we may try that.
Small Wide World 