My Friends Invade Japan - Part 2 (Matsuyama Visit)

So I decided to take my friends my friends on the 28th and boy... was that a great choice! =) It was a beautiful Sunday and the cherry blossoms were blooming all over the capital city of Matsuyama. My friends and I woke up around like 8am and we ate breakfast together. I made french toast, a spicy vegetable scrambled egg dish, and some sausages that were cut up to look like octopuses. =) I felt so honored and delighted since I was able to cook for my friends again like I used to do a couple of times when I went to college with them. After chowing down on some breakfast, we took the 9 o'clock train to Matsuyama and met up with my dear friend, Stacy. Thank to her help, our day in Matsu went smoothly and we had fun hanging out with her. We started the day in Matsuyama by eating some jakoten or aka... deep fried fish paste. I am not a big fan of it because it has this sandy texture to it... but I had my friends try it and they said it was not so bad. They had something similar so they said it was kind of the same. After some fish paste, we took the chairlift to Matsuyama castle. BTW, I must say that the chairlift to the castle is prolly one of the best parts of visiting Matsuyama castle. Plus... the castle is located high up on a hill overlooking the entire city! I agree with Stacy on this, but Matsuyama castle definitely ranks high on my list of favorite Japanese castle. =) Anyhow, we finally get to the top of the hill... and we see the castle and hella cherry blossom trees blooming in profusion. All of us were taking non-stop pictures.

After we get a group shot of all of us and so forth, we enter the castle to tour the inside. As we ventured inside, we came across a exhibit featuring samurai armor. And the best part of the exhibit was.... we get to try it on. My friend, Rishi volunteered and we dressed him up for "battle." Brian and I felt like we were wives preparing Rishi-san for his battle against other samurais. There's like hella pieces of armor that we had to put on him.... and after like 10 minutes... we had Samurai Rishi. We all pose with the Indian Samurai, Rishi-san... and I believe that it is one of my favorite pictures throughout my whole trip with my friends. =)






After we take pictures and take the armor off, we head out the castle to catch some lunch. I wanted Rishi to see what Indian food in Japan looked like so we went to one of my favorite Indian restaurants in Ehime, Everest. There my friends and I all ordered the lunch specials and the huge naan. When we all got our orders, we were hella surprised in how huge the naan were and how little meat there was in the curry sauce. We were all discussing in how much chicken we had in our curry and it looks like some people had like one piece of chicken and some people took their share or something and ended up with 4 or 5 pieces in there. haha. It was such a funny conversation to discuss over the lunch table.

After lunch, we did some shopping in the Okaido and when I mean shopping... I mean... going to the arcade to play some UFO catcher games. We did some shopping along the way to the arcade, but once we all saw the prizes in the UFO machines... we simply needed to stop by and win some prizes. We eventually ended up playing other games like... music beat games, shooting ones, and so forth. After spending a hour in the arcade and losing money, we decided to hit up some onsen. But before that, we headed off to check out a temple. I took the guys to the 51st temple out of the 88 temples of Shikoku pilgrimage. We went to Ishiteji Temple and enjoyed the sunset view from there. We did some praying and offerings as well. I was very excited because this was one of the first temples out of the 88 Shikoku temples that I was visiting.

After our temple visit, we headed off to Dogo Onsen, the oldest host spring in Japan to enjoy a hot bath. Along the way, I met a random cute dog and I just needed to take a picture of him. He was very friendly and calm. Anyhoo, we eventually get to Dogo and we bought ticket set where we get to sit on the tatami-room on the second floor to enjoy some cookies and tea along with an entrance to the bath. When we got out of the hot bath, the nice breathe coming into the window cooled us down as we we enjoyed our sweets and sipped on our teas.



Because of the onsen, we started to feel hungry so we bounced out early. We went to one of my favorite or お気に入り ramen shops near Okaido called Ippu-Do and had some delicious bowls of garlic ramen and spicy bean sprouts. After our ramen dinner, we headed to an Izakaya to have some drinks and wait for our 11 o'clock train back to Niihama. We went to an izakaya that served all their foods and drinks for 300 yen... surprisingly reasonable for an izakaya. After a few snacks and drinks, we headed out to check out the arcade again and this time... we actually won prizes. I kind of discovered the trick to easily get those stuffed animals so I was on a roll. I taught this trick to Brian-san and in no time... he was winning some stuff too. Haha.. My phrase for whenever we win one was "YA VOY!!!!" Random and made no sense, but it was hilarious nonetheless. We also had an intense race of Mario Kart and it was a super close race! Well... actually... Rishi was in the lead for the longest time and somehow... miraculously... I get an item and use it on him and take first place in the last few seconds. It was an epic race, which Rishi felt great agony and he assured me that he would get revenge on me as well as everyone else. I was prepared to challenge him anytime.

We also briefly met with an ALT friend of Stacy and I, Annie who's like hella good at this game called Ju-Beat. A cube with video panels and you press these panels/buttons in sync with the music. She was on a high difficulty and she was just rocking away. My friend, Marlon-san and I were hella amazed.

Eventually, like Cinderella... our time to head back to Niihama had arrived. We bounced out of the arcade and caught a taxi back to Matsuyama station. At the station, we took a picture with Stacy and thanked her for accompanying us throughout the whole day. We had a great time with her. We got some drinks for the ride home and went back to Niihama to rest and wake up early the next day to go to Tokushima prefecture.