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 11. Instagram This day was spun on its head before it even started, as today was my scheduled day for Kyoto, but I'll actually need to be in Kyoto tomorrow to meet my buddy Boo and his family. Before I left for Japan, Boo and I coordinated to meet at his extended family's home in Nara on the 12th & 13th, and I'd go to Osaka on the 14th. But now the plan is I'll meet them in Kyoto on the 12th, and then head to Nara for the 13th & 14th,  so I have to do Osaka today or not at all. Luckily, I did have enough of a notification that I was able to cancel my hotel in Osaka, as it makes sense to stay in Kyoto tonight to be awake there tomorrow morning. Just a little bit of a shuffle, not so bad! As I was originally booked for Kyoto, my initial train from Nagoya at 6:35am took me to Kyoto for 7:19am, and it was a very quick transfer onto a train to Osaka that I was there just shy of 8:00am. Once again I found a coin locket to leave my bag in at the station, ...

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 ...