Joe Rodin Has A Blog

December 31st - January 1st. Instagram One more recommendation for travel: fly on New Year's Eve. The airport was empty and I made it through security in under 10 minutes. When Japan Airlines sent me the reminder email, they said I only needed to be the airport an hour in advance, but my instinct is to always arrive at least two hours early. Boy was I wrong. I sure did sit at that airport for two hours waiting and waiting and waiting! It ended up being fine, because with no one at the airport, the WiFi wasn't bogged down and I stayed entertained for the most part. The flight as well was a breeze. Japan Airlines has plenty of leg room, and the movie selection was pretty solid, so as long as you stay busy: time flies. I think the movies I watched in no particular order were: Jumanji 1, Maleficent 2, Toy Story 4, Aladdin, X-Men: Dark Pheonix, and Shazam! I paid the premium for inflight WiFi, and it wasn't fast enough to do most things on the internet, but was good enough...

My Japan spreadsheet is pretty cool, and it covers all the important information. Across the board it covers: Date Time of Travel Hotel Cost Destinations Costs This all gets looped together into a vertical version of the sheet, which is easier to read on a mobile device on the go, I won't show the full vertical sheet, because that information is already covered above, and would take up the majority of this post, so this is just for the idea: The items highlighted by a green border  means there's a pre-booked ticket that is on a time schedule. All flights are listed with the flight number and takeoff time 🛫. The item highlighted with the big red question mark❓means the ticket is pending and I won't know until the day of arrival if the voucher goes through. (If not, it triggers an auto-refund). Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree are limited to days the sun ☀️ is out, they close for inclement weather.  Hakone being fairly spread out and requiring busses ...

Criteria The most important thing when it comes to traveling, first and foremost, is where I'd like to go and what I want to accomplish: Criteria . A real vacation should cover these six fields: Sightseeing/Tourism, History, Food, Shopping, Weather, Leisure. Sightseeing/Tourism : If it's ancient or brand new, if it's a cool building, a fun event, a "must-do" whether for locals or travelers, I want to do all of it, or as much as possible. I'm a tour guide in Boston, so I love to see what other cities have to offer. History : Square and a rectangle with sightseeing, not all sights you see are necessarily historic, so if I'm going to a new country/city, I need there to be a draw in terms of its history. Food : When it comes to being at home, I honestly order almost the same thing every week from the same places, and maybe have 7-10 recipes I rotate through. When I'm in a new country, I love to just go wild trying every new dish I possibly can, and ...