Sunday in Muroran

It turned Autumnal with a vengence today. Whereas yesterday morning I was out and about in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals, today was a day for the woolies. The wind blew hard from the north west, the rain splattered down angrily, and thoughts turned to switching on the central heating. We are hoping to hold out until November (due to the ongoing shutdown of all nuclear power stations in the country our electricity prices have risen by 10% since the beginning of September), but the plummeting temperatures and biting winds are testing our resolve.
So the hitherto usual indian summer Sunday mix of walks, cycling and gardening had to be replaced with something a bit more indoorsie. Thankfully Muroran had laid on a veritable cultural smorgasbord of activities to take our minds off the weather. First up was a visit to the Muroran Plastic Model Club (since 1967) who organised an exhibition of various model airplanes, ships, tanks, transformers, etc.
And it was freaking awesome!!!
Or just freaky, depending on your point of view.





A lot of time and love went into making these models. The first I can respect, the latter methinks is a tad misdirected. Anyway, our inner nerds temporarily assuaged, off we headed to the Fishing Port Festival!
Unfortunately, the cold and the howling wind put paid to the 'grab the salmon in the pool' event, but it was still all go at the indoor market.





After that double whammy, we needed some chilling out of the emotional kind, and so we wended our quiet way to the Autumn Bonsai exhibition, a sort of leafy, botanical Bon Iver album for the soul. Enthused by the craft and skill on display I let slip to one of the organisers that I too grew a couple of Bonsai. Whereupon I was urged, good naturedly, to join their group and so lower the average age to something closer to 60 rather than 80. I politely demurred, the surfing lifestyle still more appealing than the sedentary one, but I promised the nice man that I would get back to him in a couple of years.





We finished our tour with a visit to the SL Steam Engine, once the pride of JR Hokkaido, now standing slightly forlorn in old Muroran.