2/19 Daimon-san

When I visited Matsuyama for that short trip, we stumbled upon a nice older man named Daimon. He and his wife live on a relatively big farm and gave us tons of snacks. He told me to come back to play when he heard that I may return to study abroad.

Well, it turns out that I did study abroad. So, early in the year around November I actually biked to where I remembered his shack being. Unfortunately, nobody was there so I hastily wrote a note and tried to leave it as close to the door as possible with my address. Some time later, Professor Hidding from the university was messaging me and told me that Daimon-san was trying to message me. She gave me his phone number. So, sometime in February when I had free time I decided to call. It was a little difficult to understand him through the phone, but I made out that he was traveling in Germany and would not be back until a later dan translated, the sign on Madarame's Palacte. I said okay and then did contact him later.

Long story short this was the day I was going to meet him. He pulled up to my dorm in a large Mercedes or BMW and we talked as he drove me about 30 mins to the car. He apparently is in his 80's and his wife is around the same age. They have a cat named Fuu, and some pet goats. One of their kids moved to Germany and works as a sushi chef. Their property is large by Japanese standards, and they grow a lot of different kinds of fruit. I was given a tour of the property including their second floor guest room, sauna, barbecue area, campsite, golf driving range, garden, and others. According to the Matsuyama International Center, he is pretty famous in the area.

After the tour, his wife told him to take me to the top of "Daimon mountain" and she gave me some insulated clothes because of the wind. We hiked up this very wild, unmaintained trail, steep, and long trail up until we had a great view of Matsuyama. I attached some pictures below. When we got back, we had a large barbecue inside the house on a hotpot. It was great. We talked for a while, and then he gave me a beer can "wind-spinner" that someone made. After that they took me to a Seven Star supermarket, and despite my protesting, bought me tons of food for dinner. Then they took me home.

Over the course of my time in Japan, I would ask him if he would be okay to bring exchange students over and have a "party" to which he would always say "of course, just tell me when." Him and his wife are great people and contributed a lot to my enjoyment of the trip.