Brooke's Korea: February 2017

With changing jobs comes changing my working visa!

This has been... not fun and quite complicated. Simplified, I need to leave Korea twice to transfer everything to my new school from my old one.

With Lunar New Years this month it is one of the most expensive times to travel... after spending a load of time surfing the net for a hot deal - I bit the bullet and booked a trip to Japan with Tae Yoon!

I was a little too excited after a 5:30 am wake up for him... YAY JAPAN!!

We stayed in an Air BnB! It was really cool to be in an actual Japanese apartment and yes it was tiny - somehow we forgot to take photos! *Gotta get back into the blog mindset!*

Aside from the legit Japanese housing experience, the Air BnB host was super legit and had maps, restaurant recommendations and BICYCLES available for us!

24 hours in Japan : 2 goals

1. Spend some time in Peace Memorial Park

2. EAT EVERYTHING

The most iconic part of the Peace Memorial Park is one of the only surviving buildings post the atomic bomb that was dropped by the United States on August 6th, 1945. Now, renamed the Atomic Bomb Dome, this building is truly haunting and stands as a reminder of the destruction and loss felt by this relatively quiet and humble city.

1000 Paper Cranes

As per Japanese legend - upon folding 1000 paper cranes one will be granted a wish from the gods. A young Japanese girl survived the A-bomb attack at the age of 2. Radiation poisoning led to her battle with leukaemia 8 years later. She sought out to fold 1000 cranes but did not reach her goal before passing away. Now there are cranes displayed from all over the world with wishes of peace.

Food - yeeeeeaahhhhhh

Just down the road from the Peace Park is Hondori Street where we spent the remainder of our short visit. This is a commercial area packed with shops, restaurants, arcades and many other fun things! We made our way down the street stopping for "two drinks and one dish" at as many places as we could.

Hiroshima Okonomiyaki
Nagataya

This is a very common dish in Japan BUT Hiroshima does it a little different and arguably better. This savoury pancake is layers of heaven. Was so good I broke our rules and had it TWICE.

Egg, cabbage, beansprouts, onions, noodles, pork, shrimp, other stuff? brown sauce? all cooked infront of you on a hot plate!

AMAZING!! NEED MORE.

Japanese Ramen
Ichiran

Perfect for solo dining or a quick bite. Order and pay for your dish at this machine before entering the restaurant then have a seat in your own little booth. There you will find a sheet of paper where you can customize your dish (EX. How spicy 1-10? 10! )

Press the button and wait! Soon your soup will pop through the tiny window and the curtain will be closed and leave you wondering what kid of magic goes on back there...

*Drooling*