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Muroran is a city that captured my heart. They say every good thing has to end, and that included my marvelous trip to the city of Muroran.
There is no single best time of year to travel to Muroran. Summers are humid but comfortable. And winters can be freezing and windy. But springs can be profligate with bloom. Its warm season lasts from June to September. And its cold season lasts from December to March. The temperature varies from 25 degrees Fahrenheit to 75 degrees Fahrenheit year round.
There are a lot of things to discover through traveling. It offers me an understanding of how much people connect with one another. It has taught me to value even the shortest conversation I happened to encounter with the locals when I visited a new place anywhere in the world. Traveling has showed me that it is indeed a small world we live in.
Buddhism and Shinto are Japan’s two major religions. Buddhism was imported from mainland China. Shintoism is as old as the Japanese culture. The architecture of Buddhist temples in Japan consists of locally developed variants of architectural styles born in China. With a few exceptions, the general blueprint of a Shinto shrine is Buddhist in origin. These two religions have been co-existing relatively harmoniously.
In Japan, the word temple always refers to a Buddhist temple. Places of Shinto worship are called shrines.
A torii is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine. The function of a Torii is to mark the entrance to a sacred space. Therefore, it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. The presence of a torii at the entrance is usually the simplest way to identify Shinto shrine. Small torii icons represent them in Japan road maps.
I saw a fountain in front of the shrine I was visiting. It is for visitors to cleanse their hands and faces before entering the shrine. The stone lions at the entrance are in position as guardians of the shrine.
Located in southwestern Hokkaido in the Oshima Peninsula, Muroran has experienced a boom in industrial manufacturing of steel and numerous products in recent years.
I enjoyed great views from Cape Chikyu-misaki which won first place in “the 100 Nature selections in Hokkaido.” This scenic spot sits in the southernmost tip of Etomo Peninsula in Muroran City. Chikyu means “the Globe” in Japanese. The Chikyu-misaki Observation Deck was built at 120 meters above sea level. The most significant characteristic of Muroran is that visitors can enjoy both cityscapes and natural beauty here.
The alluring natural beauty and the palpable energy of the city of Muroran have captured my heart. With the friendliness of the people I met there came a whole new layer of fondness.
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