For my last evening in Japan, Sou and I went on a date to a really nice Italian restaurant.
The food was sooo delicious (and not too expensive!) and the atmosphere was just perfect! I’d really love to go there again.

We got:
-unlimited bread!
-salad (not pictured)
-carbonara pizza
-yummy pasta with white sauce, scallops, and brussel sprouts
-cake
-mango sherbert and vanilla frozen yoghurt~

Anyway, I think that’s it for posts from this trip!
The plan is to go back this summer, but plans for that can’t really start until March when the summer class schedule comes out (I need to take 2 more classes to graduate).

I met up with my friends Lindsey and Fuka (who studied in Colorado last fall) to go window-shopping, do purikura, have dinner, and of course, karaoke!

On a quest for delicious parfaits, we ended up at this cafe in Minoo (a small town in Osaka prefecture).
Being the Meiji-lover that I am, I was excited that their theme was basically mixing 和風 (Japanese style) with 洋風 (Western style) haha.

I got a 和風 parfait, with 抹茶 (green tea) ice cream, 団子 (dango), and more!

I realized there is still a lot I didn’t cover of my trip in this blog, so here’s the start of some retroactive photos!

These are both from Hiroshima - some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (different from Osaka-style because of the noodles), and then a momiji manjuu and some green tea while in Miyajima~

On New Year’s Eve, we went to a Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine at midnight to celebrate the new year.
Buddhist temples ring their bell 108 times to signify the 108 sins Buddhism recognizes - I was given the opportunity to ring it myself!
At the shrine, we got omikuji, and I bought an omamori for someone as a gift.

On the morning of New Year’s Day, we had traditional Japanese osechi.
Unfortunately, most of the food in them is really not suitable for someone so picky about their food haha…

We also visited the Peace Park and Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima.

We went to Hiroshima for New Year’s - on the 31st, we did some sightseeing.

Last time I went to Miyajima, the famous shrine was under construction, which was so disappointing…glad I could see it this time!