Time was when there was no undersea tunnel between Honshu and Hokkaido. People and freight were transported along with trains by ferries run by the Japan National Railways (JNR). The transport amount of people dipped after peaking in the early 70s losing out to air. The cargo and passenger boats, "Seikan Renrakusen", connecting Honshu and Hokkaido had closed its 80 years of history passing the torch to the undersea tunnel, inside of which Shinkansen bullet train runs at present. One of the boats "Mashumaru" is linked to the land and is used as a museum. I visited it.
As I reached the museum, a dozen buses came in the parking lot. A nightmare erupted. The buses put the passengers out like vomiting poisonous food. I was afraid that they would come into the museum, but their destination was "Hakodate Asaichi", a kind of local market. The visitors of the museum, the former "Mashumaru," were several. The train's deck was closed, which I wanted to see the most, but I felt the good old days. I got a toy in the souvenir shop in the boat which I'll show you in the following picture. It's one of the boats, "Taisetumaru". I heard that 6 ferries had been operated continuously 24/7.
We also visited Hakodate Asaichi, but it was full of so many noisy ill-mannered tourists. We bought and sent some specialties of Hakodate to my parents, and got away from there.
(Vocabulary)
dip after peaking in（売り上げなどが）＿月をピークに落ち込む
pass the torch（後継者などに）バトンを渡す
北海道と本州を結ぶトンネルが無かった頃、人、貨物は列車ごと船で運ばれていた。１９７０年代前半をピークに旅客輸送は飛行機に奪われ、１９８８年ついに輸送の主役を青函トンネルにバトンタッチして青函連絡船は８０年の歴史の幕を閉じた。そのうちの一隻、摩周丸が海岸に固定されて博物館となっているので訪ねてみた。
港へ着くとまだ９時前だというのにバスが続々とやってくる。昨夜の悪夢が甦ってきた。思った通り支那人達だった。毒を吐くように乗客を降ろしたバスは約２０台。ただ彼らが向かう先は函館朝市！摩周丸の中は静かでマニアが数名いただけだった。船内では列車の格納される場所を見たかったのだが、立ち入り禁止。残念だが仕方なし。お土産にチョロＱを買った。緑色が好きなので大雪丸を選んだ。
次いでいった函館朝市は大混雑。写真を撮るなどできない。商品の多くが生ものなのでさすがに支那までは持ち帰りにくいのだろう。その場で食べる人が多いような気がした。
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