Hiroshima Bites

Just some pictures of the food that we ate while in Hiroshima :)

Nabe ^^

Katsudon and oh boy was it good~

Assortment of tempura with chicken katsu

Chicken katsu~ 

Chocolate and cream puff from a sweets cafe :)

Cranberry juice and more sweets from Stick Sweets Factory

Cheese and jalapeno okonomiyaki~ it tastes better than it sounds!! :D

Mochi bites playing hide-and-seek inside the okonomiyaki...

Yakisoba 

Anago (seawater eel) sandwiched between rice patties :)

All-you-can-eat yakiniku :D

HUGE parfait and worth every yen :)

Lunch set! 

Egg on top, with a type of rice (I think..) and natto on the bottom. My friends said they really liked it O.o

Another lunch set complete with hijiki, nori and some vegetables

It looked so yummy!!

Hot soba that was nice and light ^^

Thank you so much for reading! I definitely feel like eating something right now :) Next post will be the first part of the sakura in Arashiyama ^^

Hiroshima Day 3: Dessert for Brunch and Hiroshima Castle

Last day of Hiroshima! After pulling an all-night karaoke session the night before, we didn't exactly wake up at the crack of dawn ;) We did, however, have to check-out of our apartment by 11 so we still had a good portion of the day left to wander around the city. My friend recommended going to a parfait place for brunch and let's be real, no one would ever object to that idea. So we went to the small parfait shop inside the station (you could live in there...it has a mall, countless eating places, omiyage stores galore, shopping floors, etc.) and ordered one of the largest parfaits. Between the five of us, the 3,000 yen price was quite a good deal :)

The parfait came with five ice cream cones (one was buried in the middle) that already had ice cream on them in addition to the layers of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, strawberries and pineapple and pocky sticks :D 

Ended up drinking out of the huge cup when my friends were too full to finish it off :) It took us 15 minutes to polish it off ^^

Decided to walk off all that ice cream by making our way to Hiroshima Castle

Saw some people dressed up in traditional clothing for a play

And followed them into the grounds

I didn't expect the grounds to be so extensive so I was surprised to see how large it was..

Arriving in style. Like A Boss. 

The castle wasn't as large as the one in Osaka or Himeji, but I still found it very impressive as we walked up the stairs :] 

View of downtown from the bottom of the castle

We didn't have enough time to go inside and walk upstairs to the very top (I can only imagine what the view would have looked like!), but I was still very content to just marvel at the castle ^^ Although it didn't have the white stone finish as other castles do, I thought the wooden planks gave it a very traditional feeling. 

And that wraps up my trip to Hiroshima!! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! :)

Hiroshima Day 2: Miyajima Island

Happy Friday everyone!! Thank you to all you read my previous post :) Today will be about Day 2! A full day of exploring around Miyajima Island ^^ We were extremely lucky-- it was sunny, warm and high tide ^^ Enjoy!

Leaving the pier for Miyajima :)

Can you see the torii? 

Dropping off crowds of tourist and locals :) 

I didn't know Miyajima was famous for its deer O.o they're much tamer than the ones at Nara!

But I did know that it's famous for their momiji-shaped foods and omiyage! :)

Oysters are another famous food from Hiroshima 

HUGE shamoji (rice paddle)

Just to give a scale....

Rickshaw and a happily newly wed couple! ^^ 

Approaching the entrance to the main site to see the torii 

And apparently, you can go on a boat tour to get closer to the torii! 

Ta-da!! It's one thing to see pictures of it, but to see the famous torii in person was nothing short of spectacular :) 

The boat's looking a little small back there...

Line to get into the shrine...thank goodness it moved quickly!

Floating torii, floating shrine :) 

And yet another picture of the torii ^^

There was a traditional Shinto wedding ceremony happening while we were there and this was part of it

Gorgeous backdrop :] 

Lots and lots of people on a 3 day weekend..

This guy made my day by smiling for the camera! :) 

5-story pagoda

All-you-can-eat and drink for 4,000 yen? Sold!! Drank a lot of juice and tea O.o

Thank you so much for reading :) Day 3 will be up tomorrow ^^