Japan in pictures. First stop: Hiroshima

Here’s some long overdue pictures of my trip to Japan, starting with Hiroshima. I’m quite busy these days so I don’t really have time to write an elaborate text covering the general atmosphere and my feelings while travelling the land of the rising sun, but I still have a lot of pictures (and 2 videos!) to share with you. Most of these were taken with my Samsung phone and not re-touched, so don’t expect mind-altering photography.

I might edit this post in the future to add a map of each spot I visited.

I hope you enjoy!

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments below.

Sorry for potato quality, but this is after 4 hours of driving in the snow on summer tires, right after getting off the plane. These are the sorts of magazines sold at gas station convenience stores. Right away, I knew I was in heaven. Having a limited amount of room in my bag, I realized right away I was facing a dire challenge: Selecting the right paraphernalia to bring home with me.

First mall we visited (I never did so much shopping in my life!) in Hiroshima and I’m greeted by what I would like to believe as a life-size statue of the mighty plumber.

I never really liked cars or trucks but these Japanese vehicles reminded me of giant Hot Wheels. I caught myself taking quite a few pictures of them. Adorable!

The dome, one of the main Hiroshima attractions. It’s a building that survived the atomic bomb and serves as a memorial site. It’s lined by a very nice canal and walking distance to many other attractions dedicated to that awful event.

Okay, let me level with you: a lot of pictures here will be related to Japanese manga and anime culture. It permeates every corner of their cities! I took this picture solely to make my friend Ryan jealous. This particular convenience store had a Gundam display the likes I would not see again. I kind of regret not getting this Gundam-shaped Ice maker.

Covered outdoors arcades are where it’s at! These displays are a perfect eye-catcher and an easy hint for those on the hunt for action figures, collectible cards, video games and anything else you can imagine. The other dude is my dad, he’s awesome.

Tiny snack bar. Everything is tiny in Japan, unless you’re talking about shopping malls, ancient Buddhist cemeteries, life-size Gundam statues or railroad systems. I was surprised at how cheap food was in Japan! We ate like kings, every day.

Inside the famed Okonomi-Mura, a building with several stores, each filled to the brim with compact restaurants that serve exclusively Okonomiyaki, the local delicacy.

The lady behind was his apprentice, having a cigarette before starting her shift. The man was quite talkative, he could speak a bit of about 10 languages. Let’s not hold against him that Pineapple-man was singing in a loop the whole time.

Okonomiyaki in all its glory!

And lastly, the video I made while travelling. I very quickly stopped making those however as I didn’t enjoy living my travels through my camera lens. Hope you can forgive me sempai!