8/13 Last Meal at Ivy House and Lunch with Junjun

Juunosuke (Junjun), one of the students I knew who had studied abroad in New Zealand, told me that he wanted to go get lunch with me before I left. He came and met up with me at Miyuki dorm, and from there we decided to bike somewhere. I think that we were gonna go to a little Chinese-style restaurant just south of the dorm, but when we got there it turned out to be closed. When we turned around to go somewhere else, I noticed that there was a little "western" restaurant which I had biked by several times before. We went and saw that it was opened and so decided to go inside.

It was really quaint, and had very much of a winery theme. There were bottles everywhere, and especially some California Zinfandel bottles. The pasta set of the day was bacon mushroom. Aside from the pasta, it came with salad, a little bit of baguette, karaage fried chicken, vegetable tempura, and Japanese pudding! This was all for 1000 yen, or about $6.50.

We chatted for a while and then eventually the owner came and gave us our food. It was absolutely amazing, definitely one of the best meals I had in Japan. We took our time enjoying it and then we realized that we still had time, so we went over to the dessert shop by the dorm and got some ice cream. We enjoyed it, I went back to the dorm, and chilled out.

I think that at around 5:30 Junko came to get me to go out to dinner, which would be my "last supper" in Matsuyama. She was gonna take me to a seaside restaurant called "Ivy House" which was styled as some European cottage with namesake ivy growing over it. Our first stop was actually the Hojo rest-stop observation deck. I was brought here for the short term study-abroad trip in January 2024 but we went back cause it's such a nice view.

From there we went to Ivy House, and went inside. It was very spacious with some of those hand-carved fisherman statues. We were led to our table, which was right by the window. The interior was very much European cottage-esque, and the table next to us seemed to be an English or Australian tourist family. We took a look at the menu, and Junko told me that they are apparently known for a type of "golden curry." I think this was just an omelette placed on top of the rice.

As always, Junko told me that I can't pay, because she would take care of it, even despite my best attempts. We chatted away, while awaiting our meal. 

Then it arrived, and she had let me order a steak golden curry, which turned out to be soooo much food. It took a while, and I did do my best, but I think I had to leave some curry on the plate to live another day. When we left it was dark, and the passerby ships out in the sea were long retired. We were met with an onslaught of bugs swarming the few exterior lights.

Next up, Junko wanted to take me to a special shop near the water. She told me that it is an ice-cream shop named "Blue Heaven" that sold Okinawan ice cream known as "Blue Seal."

We pulled up next to the shop, and what I first noticed was that there were tons of bugs around. Big ones too. We walked up to the door and a praying mantis flew in and this girl who was leaving with her boyfriend started freaking out. Flipping out like she was gonna die. I went and grabbed the mantis and put it outside on a post. Junko and I went back inside and the shopkeeper expressed her thanks for me doing that. Once again Junko would not let me pay for anything (bless her) and she paid for my ice cream. Outside we talked about all the bugs here and in Kochi, where she was from, and our it's great that we're both used to all the bugs.

Then she took me back to the dorm, I said thank you, she said "see ya tomorrow!" and I retreated back into my near-empty chamber. A little while later, I got a knock on my door... it was Sho! My neighbor right across from me. He said "let's take a picture" and took one with his Polaroid-ish camera, then gave it to me. We said "bye" and we went our ways.

Here's a video of me walking to the supermarket!