Travel

Travel

How I started my travel

I've been traveling around the world since Apr, 24, 2007, but I wasn't planned for this.

When I quit my job half a year before my first departure, I had no idea about travel around the world!!

So, I quit my job to study abroad. And, I just quit. I didn't do any research before I quit. I was actually so busy for couple of months because I had to do a lot of things before I quit.

Anyway I quit then. And took a rest for a month because I was exhausted. Then, I started research about study abroad. In the end, I found out I don't have enough money to study abroad for 4 years.

So, I changed my mind. I had to.

Anyway, I had been working soooo hard for 3 years so I thought I deserve some fun and vacation from the work. And, I had a lot of friends from Europe so I started a research how to go to Europe but cheaper. Then, I ran into 1 ticket, called Round the World ticket.

Round the world ticket

RTW(Round the World)

I'm not traveling around the world all the time. I'm not that rich!!

I went back to Japan 3 times for some reasons.

So, I categorize my travel as RTW1, RTW2, RTW3, RTW4.

And, RTW1.5, RTW2.5, RTW3.5 for those of times I spent in Japan between travels.

If you wanna know little bit more about my travel, please check those listed below.

RTW1(Apr, 24, 2007-Apr,25, 2008. 20(?) countries)

My plan was just 1 year or 1 and half a year. But as my travel goes by, I started to realize that I travel soooo slow.

So, as time goes by, I had to make a decision if I should throw away Round the World ticket and keep traveling around where I was or I change my route to earn as much mileage as I could and go back to Japan once leave some gift, meet friends, family and earn little bit of money by doing part-time job. But after 11 months, I used only 4 flights out of 20 that I could!! So it was too expensive to throw it away, instead, I changed my route, 15 flights in 2 weeks, over 45,000 mile flight. Supposed to be fun.

Round the World ticket is the flight ticket that airlines, alliances or some travel agency issues that let you to go travel around the world!! There are many different types of Round the world ticket. Depend on which one are you using, also depend on where you issue, price varies a lot.

Anyway, considering number of flights I can take with this ticket, it was not really that bad. So, I did more research and I decided if there is the ticket to travel around the world, not just Europe for reasonable price(doesn't mean it was cheap at all), why not take it and travel around the world, instead of just Europe!!

So, that was the start.

Well, for additional info, from my experience of travel by RTW ticket, I don't recommend to others. Only if you are 100% sure you gonna go back to where you start or you wanna include some special place like Easter Island that will be little bit expensive flight, then, maybe good. But basically, I don't recommend.

Countries visited: Netherlnd, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russua, Ukraine, Poland, England, France, Monaco, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland(Denmark), Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Chile.

Then, I went back to Japan to attend my brother's wedding.

Countries visited: Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras.

RTW2(Nov, 15, 2008-Jul, 22, 2009. 5 countries)

So, in this travel, I had a clear plan. Go to Antigua, Guatemala and study Spanish.

But, when I got Mexico city, I met one girl from Russia, studying Mayan culture in US. So, I decided to travel with her for a while so I could get to know more about the Mayan culture. Thanks to her, I could see more Mayan ruins and I could understand a little bit more.

After 1 month or maybe little bit more, we arrived at Antigua so I stayed there and studied Spanish.

So, I stayed Antigua for 3 months. Went to Spanish school for 8 weeks. I needed some break so I didn't go to school all the time. But while I'm studying, I was studying all day.

After that, I met this German girl at the hostel I stay in Antigua, so we traveled together for 1 months in Guatemala.

RTW1.5(Apr, 25, 2008-Nov, 15-2008)

It supposed to be a couple of months. Just to see friends then go back to travel.

But, due to the airlines mistake, on my way back to Japan, I had to change a route of my round the world ticket that I was supposed to get enough mileage out of it to go back to Mexico for free. But for conclusion, I couldn't get enough of it so I had to stay in Japan for little bit longer than I expected to earn little bit more money for the flight..

But, in the end, in my part-time, I successfully earned a lot more than I expected so it turned out great!

RTW2.5(Jul, 22, 2009-Aug, 26,2009)

I went back to Japan to attend my brother's wedding. Nothing else.

I found a good deal back to Japan so I decided to go back. It was just a month so it was busy.

RTW3(Aug, 26, 2009-May, 22, 2010. 3 countries)

So, I came back to Antigua again. Went to some place I haven't been to.

Then, I met this Australian guy, AJ, at CouchSurfing meeting. We had a similar plan so we decided to travel together for a month that those places I haven't been to in Guatemala. It was fun. After 1 month, he had to go back to Australia.

Then, I finally moved to El Salvador.

El Salvador was the country I wanted to visited the most in Central America because I loved coffee from there so I wanted to learn something more.

So, I tried to find the volunteer in coffee plantation but I couldn't find it that easily.

But instead, I found another volunteer in Eco tourism park. So, I worked there for 2 weeks. Then, hurricane hit El Salvador.

The news was all over, and in some places looks damage was terrible. So, with some help I could manage to go there to help those people in need. So, I volunteered there for 3 weeks after hurricane.

After that, I had to get out of Central America(I mean, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua) for 3 days, so I went up to Mexico. There are treaty called CA-4 between those 4 coutnries. Please check wiki if you want more details.

There, in Mexico, I had the longest CouchSUrfing experience ever. I stayed one couch for 4 and a half months in the end in Puebla. That will be my longest CouchSurfing experience ever!!

Then, I flew to Japan again, this time to attend one of my best friend's wedding.

Countries Visited: Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico

RTW3.5(May, 22, 2010-Dec, 8, 2011)

Before the earthquake

Ok. So, I went back to Japan again to attend one of my best friend's wedding.

I had enough mileage that I could exchange for free flight so why not?

Then, I found a part-time job in one NPO in Japan until end of March. It was longer than I planned but for more experience, I accpeted that so it would probably gonna help me to find a volunteer on my travel.

So, I was earninng more moeny and experience, slowly preparing for my travel including this website, for my next departure in the end of March, 2011.

After the earthquake

But, March 11th, 2011. Earthquake and Tsunami hit at Tohoku, Japan.

It was a real disaster.

I was at home, which is located in Chiba prefecture, just next to Tokyo. In Japan, there are many earthquakes, but it was the biggest I had in my life. Even Tokyo was disaster. Stopped train, many people stayed in office or walk back to home because of no electricity.

But epicenter was Northern part of Japan. They got much more. They got even bigger earthquake, then Tsunami then some part of them got Nuclear power plant emergency. So it was real disaster.

So, I had to change my plan.

I changed my flight date as far as I could set.

During March, I was looking for a volunteer at Tohoku area. I just wanted to be a part of help.

Beginning of the April, I was in Ishinomaki with Japanese NGO called "Peaceboat", working as a volunteer.

Then, starting from Apr 15th, started work as a volunteer with international organization, All Hands Volunteers.

Didn't do that much of physical labor, I engaged on assessment of the town to look for next job with translation.

After 1 month, I was offered to be a stipend volunteer. Well, nothing changed. Just stipend or not.

But just a volunteer or stipend are totally different even if I do same things. So, I accepted that offer for the best of all and for more experience, for my future travel and life after that.

So, I kept working with All Hands Volunteers until the end of the Project.

I did same thing as before, assessment. And, I did a lot of other things, especially, food program.

Food Program was to deliver those food to those in need of help for food in disaster area. I ran everything about it.

But I left on site in the end of Aug. I had to leave because I had too many epileptic seizures because I have been stressed out so much from the work but I kept working at home and Tokyo to deal with some other things there. My work with All Hands Volunteers wasn't physical labor. I worked on my laptop all the time down there anyway so I could handle my work at home too. I just couldn't do assessment, interpreter and a lot of small things that was going on in the base, but it probably was better to concentrate on the Food Progaram.

After end of All Hands Project Tohoku, I just prepared to go back to travel.

RTW4(Dec, 8, 2011- Now)

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