The Great Dopamine Rush of 2025

Hannah and I woke up nice and early today. Our train was leaving for Hiroshima at 10:30am, and we wanted to go back to Kacto for breakfast again. That place was so damn good. The food was just as good as the first time, we had the same dishes.

The 2 hour train ride to Hiroshima was smooth and uneventful, Hannah napped and I read. We landed in Hiroshima station at 12:30pm, Now I must admit Hannah and I got all kinds of lost and confused in this station. Half of it was under construction, and the other half had very contradicting signs. After a brief struggle to find a toilet and another brief struggle to find a taxi stand we were zooming off to our hotel.

All through my trip in Asia I have been using Agoda to find my stays. And Japan was no different except I have been booking our hotels only a day in advance here. Now what’s cool about travelling a country in the off/shoulder season, is you can find some incredible deals on hotels. Last night I found us a $1160/night room, for only $240/night at the Hilton Hiroshima. I got to say this place is swanky. With breakfast included, and an incredible view.

After we dumped our bags at the hotel, we walked off into the city to find some food. I normally don’t like going back to the same restaurant during a trip, I like to experience as many different places as possible. That being said when you find something absolutely mind boggling good, exceptions sometimes have to be made. Ichiran is one of those places, we went here on our first or second day in Tokyo and it was bomb. The Ichiran in Hiroshima was no different, and the focus booth style seating really works for me. Its almost like being in a little bubble. If a restaurant only serves one dish, you know they do it well. Hannah and I left just as satisfied as the first time.

After lunch we went to blow off some steam in a local mall. Sadly very few Japanese fashions will ever fit my 6’4 frame, that being said everything fits Hannah here and she was having a ball with the styles available here. Now we shopped for several hours, bought a few things, but mostly we were just having fun. In one of the large multistorey malls there were some claw machine games, now everybody knows that these games are rigged to only stay closed every so many grabs of the claw. That being said I still have an affinity for them I can not explain. Well we had wasted a few bucks on some machines, when we came upon a machine with a single giant plush Kuromi doll in it. Again bigger the prize, less the chance. Well for nothing more than shits and giggles, and after some very critical remarks from Hans about the chances. I used a coin, and in one shot had won her a $150 Plushy. Both of us were pretty shocked, like these machines are rigged and its obvious. Now after winning it a new problem arose, what to do with it? like this thing is the size of a 4 year old kid, thankfully we have enough wiggle room between our baggage that I think we will be able to bring it with us on the plane back home.

When our appetite’s for shopping were fully sated, we walked back and dropped off our new treasures at the Hilton. We walked back out to the business district after a brief sit down and found a not conveyor conveyor belt sushi spot for dinner. The spot we found ended up being our favorite of the trip so far. Hannah loves salmon sushi, and its been kind of hard to find here. This place had an extensive salmon section, and the fish was incredibly fresh.

From dinner we called it an early night and went back to the hotel. Our room had such an incredible view of the city, I love sitting in the bay window reading and writing. Hannah has never had room service before so we ordered some ice cream and fresh fruit to tick that box. Tomorrow we are going to see the peace memorial.

Till tomorrow.