Oh Japanese food, how I loved you. Thinking about it already gives me cravings ...

I am starting to seriously miss ramen, udon, tempura anything, takoyaki, tonkatsu, curry and sushi. So ... pretty much anything Japanese food related. The thing that really surprised me was how well the Japanese did Italian food and how cheaply too. The other thing that really surprised me was how relatively cheap the food was. Before travelling to Japan, I had people telling me that the food there is not cheap in terms of other Asian countries and that I should be expecting to pay the same price as I would in Australia. However, upon arriving, I didn't really find the food to be that expensive in terms of pricing compared to Korea. If I was paying for food that was about the same price as Australia, I would be getting more for my buck so I wasn't especially unhappy about that.

My memorable restaurants in Japan had to include this Shibuya sushi restaurant where everything was done via computers. So you would be seated and a touchscreen is pretty much in front of your face. You pretty much do everything from that touchscreen - order food, order drinks and get your bill. When you order a plate of sushi, there are conveyor belts that then bring the food to you - like directly in front of you, and all you have to do is grab it off the belt and enjoy. Each plate of usually ranged from 126 - 350 yen from what I remember. So roughly like $1.50 - $4 for each plate of sushi and it wasn't bad sushi by any means.



Also from Shibuya was another restaurant called '35 Step Bistro'. I found the restaurant via tripadvisor and the restaurant is named '35 Steps Bistro' since you have to go down 35 steps before reaching the restaurant. The restaurant was somewhat hard to find but man was the food good :9. So good especially the grilled mackerel. If you happen to go to this restaurant in Japan, you have to get the grilled mackerel. Your experience won't be the same without it, especially when they torch the fish right in front of you.



Another memorable restaurant was 'Watami'. It was so good that we went back twice. We just enjoyed everything from their menu but I especially loved their yakisoba. It had such a nice sauce that coated the noodles and everything on the plate just complimented each other. I also really liked the gyoza and thin-crust pizzas off their menu. Gahhh, the drooling at the moment.



The last really memorable restaurant was a BBQ restaurant on Doutonbori Street. The meat ... oh the meat. So beautifully marinated and the sauces that went along with them was heavenly. Each type of meat had a different sauce to go along with it and it was utterly heaven. Our waitress even taught us where the meats should go on the grill plate for the best results. Man, I seriously want some KBBQ or JBBQ, as I have now termed it after that restaurant experience. The main difference that I found with JBBQ compared to KBBQ is how thinly the meat is sliced up but it is still able to retain its moisture so when you place it on your tongue, it just melts in your mouth.




Well, that pretty much finishes off all the blog posts about my trip to Korea and Japan. I can't believe that this trip took up about the better half of 2 months to get out but I guess it's a good thing because nothing much has been happening since.

As you can tell with this post, I opted not to post photos from Osaka Castle 3D Illumination Festival just because I thought it would be boring and be sort of pointless.

So with that being said, I hoped you enjoyed the hordes of food photos and until next time, stay happy :)

This post commemorates the last week or so of my holiday overseas.


This week started off with us catching a train to Hiroshima. What I love about travelling long distance on the trains, in both Japan and Korea, was how smooth it was. You literally sit down in your seat and are able to just fall asleep for a couple of hours until you reach your desired destination. When arriving to Hiroshima, the biggest difference that I found was that they used trams to get to and from the main station, Hiroshima JR Station. Hiroshima was a really nice breather from Tokyo as the air seemed clearer, the skies were bluer and brighter (in my opinion) and had a more relaxed feel than in Tokyo.

On our first full day in Hiroshima, we went to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum. It was astounding to think of what happened almost 70 years ago to the area that I was standing in at that very moment. While going around the area and the museum, I found myself getting quite down while reading and seeing about what happened and what people had to through. The worst part had to be when they had a statue/sculpture depicting what people looked like after the blast with their skin melting. It still brings shivers down my spine thinking about it. When we exited the museum, my friend and I were actually feeling quite depressed and had a very heavy feeling within ourselves. To alleviate our somewhat dark mood, we had to take in some retail therapy which was made easier as we were staying right by the main shopping area and decided to dye my hair for the second time that night.

The next day, we decided that we would go and visit Miyajima Island. I'm not really a fan of animals so seeing the deers roaming around made me a bit uncomfortable LOL. My favourite activity that we did there was the nature walks that we took further up the island. I did not realise how much I liked nature or moving waters in rivers or mini waterfalls until that day. I must have taken way too much photos LOL. However, it was such a nice, relaxing day after the somewhat emotional day we had the previous day.

The 17th marked us leaving our hotel in Hiroshima and making our way to Osaka, our final city in Japan. For our last hotel, we decided in a traditional Japanese style hotel - a ryokan. If you have ever stayed in a ryokan, you would know that there is one room that is your living room by morning and bedroom by night. And man, were those beds comfy LOL. Luckily, someone would come into our room and do the transformation for us because we had absolutely no clue what to do.

Highlights from our stay in Osaka had to be going to see a traditional tea ceremony, visiting Universal Studios (highly recommend the street shows/performances. So much fun, even the kiddies ones, and they are done in English for the majority with some Japanese scattered about), the Illumination Festival at Osaka Castle - especially when they got the lights to switch on and off to the music and the 3D light show that was depicted on the Castle itself. An absolute must-see if you are in Osaka when the 3D Illumination Festival is held.



Sorry about the abundance of text and the rush of activities that I took part in while in Osaka, but I realised that this post was getting way too long. I may do an "In-focus" post about the Osaka 3D Illumination Festival but if I do, it will most probably be a post filled with photos. Also, this Friday will have a "Foodie Friday" post about the food that I ate in Japan.

Hope you somewhat enjoyed this post so until next time, see you.