Almost three years ago, we took our first cruise. Both port stops were in Mexico. After the first port, the boys complained about walking so much. All they wanted to do was be on the ship. And they had already checked Mexico off the list, so they didn’t think they’d miss anything to opt out of another Mexican coastal town. So Lucas and I checked them into kids club and explored Cozumel on our own.
This time, it wasn’t Mexico but Japan. But two port days in a row, both on the northern island of Hokkaido. So Lucas and I checked them into kids club and explored MURORAN on our own for six hours.
I actually left the ship three times during this port stop. When I was checking for nearby geocaches, I spotted a brand new one within close walking distance that hadn’t been found yet. Since the boys were still sleeping, I jetted off to snag what is called a “First to Find.” These are pretty rare for us, even in the U.S., so I was thrilled.
This one had a $20 roundtrip shuttle to a train station, so we used some of our onboard credit. We left at 9 am, first crossing the Hakucho suspension bridge and driving through an industrial part of town before being dropped off at Muroran Higashi train station. From there, we set off on foot to find a secondhand bookstore. Turns out, the store has shifted its focus to more of a hobby store. But Lucas was thrilled to pick up some games that Satoru Iwata helped create. Lucas wrote a book about The Impact of Iwata, and this was extra special since Muroran is Iwata’s hometown.
Some Japanese high school students were taking donations to write our names in Japanese calligraphy. This is the katakana script for Mary (pronounced meh-ah-ree). It is used for “foreign words” that didn’t originate in Japanese.
There are special cutesy busses to pick up kindergarteners. This one had Bambi characters on it (my first movie in the theater as a child!)
We went to a media store that Lucas thought would be similar to a Best Buy. But there were books! And I had to keep reminding myself that we didn’t want to load up on souvenirs yet (since we’d have to lug it through Tokyo to Osaka), so I only bought a few.
As we were walking toward Itanki Beach, we noticed a Christian church on Google maps. Curious, we stopped and looked at the sign. There are some elderly activities that happen on Thursdays, so we tried the door to see if anything was happening. Turns out, we got the date confused, but the door was in fact unlocked, and we tiptoed in and met the startled pastor. We ended up staying to talk with him for about 20 minutes and prayed for him and his congregation. We were both encouraged by his steadfastness and overwhelmed by the need.
We relaxed by the beach, marveling at the fact that we were sitting on a beach in Japan! We walked back toward the shuttle stop and were able to help some fellow cruise passengers who were completely turned around, and their phones weren’t working.
By that time, it was well past lunchtime, so we popped into a tiny ramen store. There was room for about 9 around the counter, and the man and his wife made all the food right in front of us. We asked for a menu, and he showed us some pictures from Trip Advisor, and we choose one. (we later realized the simple Japanese menu was posted on the wall). Both of us really enjoyed our bowl of ramen (leaps above the cheapest packages at WalMart). Then we stood in a long line for our shuttle back to the ship.
We picked up boys and then took THEM off the ship. On my way to the geocache in the morning, I had walked through a quaint seaside park. So we walked along there, watching the seagulls and setting sun. We got our first Japan stamp (more on this later) and first drink for everyone from the vending machines.
I chose one of the warm drink options. It’s basically warm cream corn in a can. Ha!
