8/10 Buena Vista Goodbye and Yukata

Together with the Ehime students who studied abroad at Sac State, we planned a "farewell" lunch and dinner. For lunch, I was going to hang out with Kokoro and Soya (I picked up Soya at the Sac airport to take him to the school just before I came to Ehime) and we were going to a stylish seaside place called "Buena Vista." It's a place I had passed many times on the train but had never actually had the opportunity to visit.

I met up with Kokoro on the orange Iyotetsu train, and I think I literally waited until she told me that her train arrived at Komachi station (where I was waiting). But eventually I did make it onto the train, and we went over to Baishinji. From there, we had to actually walk along the road to the fine-dining establishment, and it just so happened that it was raining.

We made it there just before they opened at met up with Soya. He was usually busy because he was on one of the university baseball teams. But anyways we went inside and took shelter from the rain. We were seated and took pictures of the scenery and the nice decor. I ordered a melon soda float, which was decent, and something else. I don't have something to go off of but I remember it being good! It was probably curry...

They had a little fish tank in there with respective Nemo and Dory fish. There was also a large chalkboard which they put tons of things such as events, new items, and recommended music.

It was time for us to go, so we said bye to Soya, but Kokoro was gonna stick around and help me with an errand. While it was in Japan, it had been my mission to buy a yukata and wooden sandals (I guess geta but not quite). We went to a store in Gintengai that I was recommended and met some very nice older ladies. Kokoro helped me decide what was necessary for me to buy and what wasn't. Kokoro took pictures of me and I sent those to my family, who just so happened to be having lunch at the Enchanted Forest in Placerville. They gave me feedback on what looked best, so I was able to choose a blue yukata with white belt.

I'm not quite sure what we did after that, but for dinner I was going to meet up with others to get my last Matsuyama taimeshi at a place Yumika recommended near Okaido. We all decided to meet up at the Dogo Station Starbucks (because it was raining) and I don't remember at all what I got, but it was probably something seasonal. I had never been in there before, so it was neat to check it out. 

When we had all arrived we walked over to a place called "Iyo Shokudo Otora" and felt like being in a large traditional Japanese mansion. We went inside, put our shoes into specially designed wooden cubbies, and were seated in a small room. We placed our orders, and talked about anything and everything. Mostly relating to study abroad and California. There were just four of us: Yumika, Kana, Kokoro, and myself. Sadly it's been almost a year as of writing this, so I don't remember much else. But we each got our food and I was blown away. It was the best taimeshi presentation so far.

But eventually we hat to go home, so we each parted ways into the rain. I saw a cockroach in the dorm hallway when I got back.