Volcanoes in Muroran

The Japanese were at it again. after promising that the procedures for going ashore would be short, we again were hours getting clearance. The entire ship needed passport control; no problem there as we did that the day before. The medical screening was the same stuff. Everyone from the Captain on down needed screening. We were scheduled to go ashore at 8 am; but ended up leaving around 10am. What that means is that with a 4 hour excursion, we got back late and it is hard to go wandering as the ship leaves early.
We were off to Mount Uso which was active in the mid 1940's. The steam was still rising from parts of the area as it is an active volcanic zone. We took the gondola ride to the top of a nearby mountain for views of the entire area. A side walk up to the rim of the crater was billed as 139 extra steps. However you could go down into the pit which was still steaming. The entire distance down was about 710 steps. My legs were a bit tired after that!
The next stop was at a massive crater lake. The highlight was a foot bath in the natural hot spring water. Then the return to ship features a stop at some buildings that were covered by a recent lava flow and a stop to take a picture of a cherry tree in bloom. Hokkaido is the northern most of the main Japanese islands and has a climate much like Southern Ontario. Many vegetable and dairy farms dot the area. They also claim the best beer in the world. It was good but I am not sure of the "best" claim.
After a quick stop at the ship, we took the free shuttle downtown. The city is not that big and the shops were very expensive. we managed to find a "7-11" type shop that sold wine so we spent our last yen on wine and chips. We found a California "bottom of the barrel tasting" wine as well a locally produced wine which we have not tried yet. A quick shuttle back and as we were leaving a Japanese dance troupe entertained us until we were far off the dock. If only Japanese officials would be a little easier to deal with.