6/14 Iyo City

A while before I even arrived in Matsuyama, I discovered a hamburger joint south of the city called "The CALIFORNIA BBQ Pit" and as someone from California, I knew that I had to try it. Since Jeremy arrived, I finally had plans to go. It was in a smaller city to the south called Iyo City, which retains the name of when Ehime Prefecture was still a feudal domain.

The craziest part of the day happened when we were leaving the dorm, there was a crab on the ground. It possibly could have been due to the rain, but who knows. We went over to the Matsuyama train station, and got on the car bound for Iyo City/Uwajima. It was a nice ride down, but man Iyo City is very much the suburbs. It's very quiet with not much going down.

When we got off the train, we were welcomed to an aged station. It wasn't bad though, just old-school. One of the other things about the city, is that there is a local market adjacent to the plaza. You can buy folk-craft goods and fresh produce. From there we trekked through the rain and backstreets to get to our destination. It was kind of funny because it's this hamburger barbecue joint in the middle of this neighborhood. We walked in to check it out, and after a few minutes of quiet, a man comes out to staff the counter. We start talking, I ask about the menu, and we make our orders.

As he's grilling we go over to check out the ambiance. There were airsoft guns hanging on the wall, video game consoles, a motorcycle, and Southern California iconography. After our walk around we went over to talk to the owner while he was grilling. We told him that we were from the Sacramento area and were studying abroad at Ehime University. He told us that he was born in Okinawa, but he and his parents move to LA where he grew up. Later he moved to Japan and got married. We talked about all kinds of things, but eventually we had to eat our burgers. At the counter we received our orders, each of us had a charcoal grilled one (mine was the "California burger") with fries, but I got a lemon tea. I think he said that the buns were baked at a local bakery, and he tried to source everything else locally to keep them as good as possible.

I swear that this was the best burger I ever had. The bun was firm and a little crispy while the produce was fresh and the patty was flavorful. We really enjoyed it. 

When we were done, the owner recommended that we walk down the street to a small place called "Sunset Town." They have good cheesecake and craft soda. So since we had time, we walked through the rain, and over to this little cafe. It was nice inside with a cool interior design. We tried the recommended order, which was really good. So apparently "craft soda" is a thing in Japan, which is basically like a homemade soda with spices. I like it!

Since we had MORE time, I contacted one of the JET Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) who was working at Iyo Agricultural High School. We trekked through more rain, which gave us a great opportunity to explore the quiet suburbs. We passed by shopkeepers overlooking their store, waiting for their customers. We passed by train tracks. Then we were at the school. There, we met up with her outside. We asked tons and tons of questions on what it was like teaching English, however we were not allowed into the school. Apparently they were getting ready for a school festival.

Then she had to go back to work, so we decided to go check out the largest mall in the region, EMIFUL Masaki!

We went back to the train station. By this point it wasn't really raining anymore. The train took us right in front of the mall, which actually turned out to be in the middle of nowhere, and man, that area was huge. We walk up to the front and enter, to which we are greeted by a Kamen Rider event. I think they are similar to Power Rangers. We spent time checking out stores like UNIQLO and Tsutaya Bookstore. There was a Hawaiian restaurant in there which I wish I tried. But we were now waiting to meet someone who came to see us. It was Junko! She led us up to the food court where she ordered us food. I don't remember what it was, but we were very grateful that she did that.

She took us over to another building where there was a pet store. I unknowingly broke the rules of taking pictures of the animals, but I didn't get in trouble. We saw a dog get adopted too! From there we walked over to the arcade and Junko actually gave us money to play. I think I won some candy, but I don't remember!

From there Junko drove us home, and we thanked her a lot.