Joe Rodin Has A Blog

It is incredibly difficult to make a top 10 list in the heat of the moment. Almost every day on the trip I found something I loved, so by the end of my trip, there'd be many items from the early part of the journey that'd be missing from the list. Now that I've given myself a few weeks to decompress and look back on the trip as a whole, I've come up with a top 10: 10. Sapporo Is it fair to write down an entire city? This is my list, so I say yes! Sapporo was tied for the shortest stay with Nagoya, both of which lasting only 19 hours, so the way I see it, you can do what I did in Sapporo in a single day trip. The three main tourist attractions in the city are all grouped very close together, Odori Park was a beautiful snow covered stretch, plenty of shopping and food to go around as well. Sapporo is at the top of my list for cities I want to see again, mostly based on that I wasn't able to spend much time there. Sapporo TV Tower, Clocktower, and Government O...

January 17. Instagram Today is a sad day, because it's my last big train ride in Japan. It's just under 2 hours from Beppu to Fukuoka, and this is also my earliest train of the trip, as it leaves the station at 5:27am. Save the best for last, right? I actually left the hotel so early in the morning, I had to wake the desk guy up to tell him I was leaving. He wasn't like hunched over the desk or anything, he was in a back room and I rang the bell and clearly woke the poor man up. Luckily I was the only person there, so he can go back to sleep for a few more hours. Fukuoka has a tourist day pass that also covers all local metro trains! I didn't look this up in advance, but there was a sign for it at the train station, and it's purchased at the station, so it's a good win-win. The day pass is mostly discounts, not a lot of attractions are free, but it's only $18, so the metro/bus being free all day will be the biggest win. The best bonus of the day is whe...