And what a day, or rather, two days. We'll start with Saturday first, 'SL Day' as it has become known around here.
Muroran is celebrating (?) it's 140th anniversary this year which by the historical standards of Hokkaido, means the town is as old as the pyramids. Though at the rate the city's population is declining, we'll be lucky to last another 40 years at most.
Anyway, what better to mark the occasion than to have a train come to town. But not just any old train, we were graced with a coal fired, steam train, last seen a huffin and a puffin down the track here some 37 year ago, or "Before I was born" as Sanae put it.
She then added "But you probably remember it".
Mean that woman is, mean.
To whet our locomotive appetites before the arrival of the 11:47am SL 37 from Noboribetsu, the town pulled out all the stops and laid on a mini train ride for children of all ages.
Cian, though wasn't quite convinced of its merits, deeming it for babies.
Mammy, on the other hand, couldn't contain herself and trampling some small infants into squidgy rail ties, jumped on board behind the driver.
And off we went. This video footage, as thrilling as it is, doesn't do justice to the sheer, visceral adrenaline rush of sitting on a miniature Shinkansen, wind in your face, dust at your back, hurtling around an elliptic track at speeds approaching upwards of 5 kmph.
Yes, 5 freakin kmph!!
A little lie down and some deep breaths later, it was off to the station.
Where a teeming mob of rabid trainspotters threatened to turn rogue as the piercing whistle announced the arrival of the SL 37.
Cian didn't like the piercing whistle. Not one bit.
We had to wait until the frenzied mob had finished firing their Canon's and Nikon's before we could get close enough to the mighty beast of the industrial revolution and take our own photos.
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