Joe Rodin Has A Blog

January 2nd. Instagram I experienced an earthquake for the first time in my life! Being the light sleeper that I am, around 3:30am I felt a light shake on the bed. I mean a very light shake, like mom just wanting you to know you need to wake up in 10 minutes, go back to sleep. This being the first time I experienced an earthquake albeit a light one, I went into full panic. Thoughts racing through my head included: Where are the exits? Do I hide under the desk? Will there be some sort of announcement about this? Do I leave the building? Do I seek shelter? The answer to these questions is: don't worry about it. Japan has an amazing earthquake detection and warning system, so if there was going to be a big one, you'd be able to seek shelter under a desk, bed, or doorway in advance. Never try to leave a building during an earthquake, and stay in place until further instruction. Turns out the one I experienced was just a little dude, and it was already the 4th earthquake that ...

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...

Preparing for a trip halfway across the world has it's difficulties, the most important being the language barrier that exists. I'll cover that and also talk about other basic prep things, such as what to pack. I've been catching up with James May's "Our Man In Japan," and he mentions that if you're an english speaker and travel to a country using the Roman Alphabet, even if you're not sure of what the word means, you can at least get a sound in your head and either deduct or just translate. This doesn't work in Japan if you don't know the alphabets, Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. For someone like me, they look real cool, but I honestly can't read anything, and my vocabulary is also tiny, as I really only know how to say, "Hello," "Thank You," and "Ramen." There are plenty of language learning resources that are free and easily accessible: phone apps, libraries, videos on YouTube, etc. There are an equally ...

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 ...

PINNED POST. There's too much I could say about my favorite Ramen Shop  Dream Workshop, Yume Wo Katare, but I'll save that for another post. The big news is that today (12/28/2018) is the last possible day for Ramen at YWK in 2018, they'll open again on January 2, 2019. For the start of next year they handed me a list of 100 dreams for next year, and I'm going to try my best to accomplish all 100 of these dreams; it just might take me longer than a year.  

I'm going to be retroactively posting here over the next couple days about our honeymoon and the places we saw and the things we did, but I'll be starting with this post about the most important thing: Food. BOGO Drinks, First meal in London, Day 1 BOGO Drinks and Mexican, Day 1 Molly has her first Pasty after Platform 9 3/4, Night 1 Lunch At the Tate Modern, Day 2 Lunch At The Tate Modern, Day 2 Lunch At The Tate Modern, Day 2 Indian Food, Night 2 British Pub Grub, Day 3 Ethiopian Food, Night 3 Twix McFlurry, Night 3 Lunch in Stratford Upon Avon, after Shakespeare's Birthplace, Day 4 Cocktails and Wine, Night 4 Italian Food, Last Night in London, Night 4 (This was one of the Top 3 meals of the trip, so delicious!) Chocolate for Dessert, Night 4 This is where we leave London for Paris. Quick Breakfast and Train Station Lunch. Escargot, First Meal in Paris, Night 5 (I was afraid to snap photos in this restauran...