Not A Recipe - Travels to Japan!

So last month I had my mid year uni break and embarked upon a holiday with a group of my close girl friends to Japan! We traveled for just short of three weeks and stayed in four cities with some day trips along the way. We began in Tokyo and spent a lot of time exploring the districts, next was Hakone a spa town and "place for honeymooners" so we were told, then Kyoto with bike riding, the Gion Matsuri festival and countless beautiful temples with a finale in Osaka home of kuiadore; a term that essentially means "to eat until you can no longer eat anymore".

Day trips to Mt Fuji, Nara and Kobe (yes there was beef involved) also happened. And a ride on the infamous shinkansen = bullet train. Probably one of the highlights aside from the beautiful culture and amazing food. I thought I'd just share a few of my favourite food snaps from the trip here, I'll try to be concise.

Gyudon (shaved beef and onion over rice) with cod roe mayo and pickled mustard leaves.

Glorious cold soba noodles, at cold noodles nearly every day! Sooo good when it's 35 and 80% humidity out.

Still haven't been able to figure out what these were! But one of my favourite things, they were like pancakes rolled up on a stick, they had tempura bits on them and were covered in okonomiyaki sauce and mayo. So delicious! Everywhere at the Gion Matsuri festival.

Fried beancurd at a little eatery in the markets in Kyoto. Ate the whole thing along with my daily dose of cold noodles.

Gloriously rich, buttery, melting beefy Kobe beef in Kobe! We opted for the "special kobe beef set" which was a 200g sirloin cut.

Modanyaki in Osaka, okonomiyaki's evil cousin filled with yakisoba! So crazy big and delicious.

An Osakan speciality, takoyaki! Little grilled balls of batter filled with octopus and other fillings of choice topped with a sweet tangy (okonomiyaki) sauce, mayo and bonito flakes.

My favourite daily staple alongside cold noodles, onigiri! Could get these for about $1-2 depending on filling choice from the convenience stores. And they had a genius wrapping system which let the seaweed stay separate from the rice until it was time to eat so it was always crispy!