#muroran

室蘭の旅の目的は、旧絵鞆小学校の中に入る事。（10月迄の土日祝は見学可能）円形校舎の中心には螺旋階段。体育館もまん丸でした。

他にも足回りとバラバラにされた凸が5輌ほど存置されている。183の前例もあるから、是非とも再び走ってほしい。

Pork cutlet rice and Udon noodles soup at the Wanishi branch of Kogane, Wanishi Icchome, Muroran city, Hokkaido.

Chikui Cape Trees, Muroran, Hokkaido, Michael Kenna, 2002

Itanki Beach, Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan,

I’ve made a pilgrimage to Higashi-Muroran, a local small town in Hokkaidou, where Abe Natsumi and Iida Kaori were born and Natsumi was raised. Muroran was once flourished as a steel manufacturing city, but is a bit rust-eaten today. The steel industry in Muroran started in 1907 and had kept developing all through the post Russo-Japanese War period, WW2, and the following high economic growth period. As Japan shifted its industrial structure from heavy to light around 1980, the fires of the blast furnaces in Muroran went out one by one. Natsumi spent her childhood in that era, and must have witnessed how the local community shrank, how her hometown lost its vigor, no matter if she comprehended the situation. Actually the population of the city today is almost a half of when Natsumi was born (1981). So it’s quite understandable that Natsumi left her birthplace in 1997 for a bright future, to become a Morning Musume. Even though Muroran’s golden days of steel manufacturing are gone, there still remains some fortunes other than Abe Natsumi. The distinctive and beautiful landscape, which Isabella Lucy Bird praised in 19th century. Itanki beach is one of those indelible fortunes of Muroran. I was impressed by its beauty and couldn’t stop imagining that little Natsumi and her family having a good time there in every bygone summertime.

Sunday's lunch by Sasakei on Flickr