Travel Tips: Japanese Eats; or What To Eat in Japan

Oops, I meant to write this post on Japanese eats before Seoul, but now I'm just going to awkwardly stick it in here and pretend it belongs.

As you saw, eating was a huge part of my trip to Japan (as it should be - Japanese food is the BEST). In fact, it was so important that I thought I'd write a separate post about it, because there are so many amazing, delicious things to nom here.  Not to mention that sometimes people don't realize the wide range that Japanese cuisine covers, in addition to just sushi.

In no particular order, here we gooooo:


1. Ramen/Soba:
Nobody does noodles as delicious as the Japanese.  There's even specialties and varieties of ramen and soba that are dependent by region, with different noodles, broth, ingredients, etc. It's truly an art form.

I've even been in one of those restaurants in Japan where you sit in singular cubicles, so you can truly focus on the ramen in front of you and its flavors, vs. having to speak to your friends & getting distracted by other things. Those things are not OK when your attention is supposed to be 100% focused on ramen, obviously.

RAMEN. Complete with pork belly, scallions, bamboo shoots, and a soy sauce-based broth.

I'm sure you've seen this duck soba featured before, but DELISH.

This is a form of cold soba called zaru soba (perfect for summer when it's a zillion degrees outside) - you get the cold noodles separate, which you dunk into the soba sauce and shovel into your mouth. It's incredibly delish.

2. Tempura:
Tempura, when done right (i.e. when it has a light, flaky crust), is life-changing. If you go to an actual tempura restaurant, you can do it up real fancy. I went to one when I was in Tokyo, and it involved multiple courses (veggies were served separate from the seafood), and various methods of dippage (different kinds of flavored salts, sauces, and flavors).  It was amazing.

First course of tempura with my favorite, shrimp! Meant to be dipped into the tempura sauce with ground radish on the right.

Veggie tempura course! Often includes potato, some kind of cucumber, etc. I dipped these in a wasabi salt and it was the best.

3. Okonomiyaki:
Okonomiyaki is like a Japanese pancake, but savory. These are one of my faves, and ingredients vary by location, but they are usually filled with a mixture of wheat batter, octopus, cabbage, ginger, pork, mayo, and sweet sauce. There are these great restaurants you can go to, where they cook them on a hibachi in front of you, or some where you can even cook your own.

Mark, Kate and I went to an okonomiyaki resty in Tokyo. But the man cooked it for us. Because we clearly had zero idea what to do.

Our little individual okonomiyakis cooking (see, you can have different ingredients!)

Complete with Pikachu fans to keep us cool (sold. This place is sold)

Finished product - with a healthy drizzle of mayo. Which I could totally eat out of the bottle, confession. Japanese mayo tastes noticeably different than regular mayo - a little sweeter and creamier.

4. Food Stalls:
Ok, so this doesn't count as one particular food item, but somewhere along the way, you will absolutely run across Japanese food stalls - whether outside a tourist attraction, or in a small street food festival, or at a community event, etc.  They often have the same delicious staples: yakisoba (fried noodles), takoyaki (octopus dough balls?? How do I make these sound as delicious as they are???), okonomiyaki (see above),  yakiniku (meat on sticks), etc. etc. And DESSERTS.

A lovely little street festival we ran across in Tokyo

Takoyaki! Delicious little balls of octopus, ginger, green onion, batter, a special sweet sauce, and mayoooo. Like okonomiyaki, but in baby ball form

Here is the okonomiyaki stall

A man making animal shaped lollies out of sugar

A mountain of yakisoba and its mayo topping

5. Japanese Curry:
Have you ever had Japanese curry? Because you need to. It's much less thick, and browner (am I selling this properly), but it has a very particular taste to it. They usually pour it over rice like a sauce, and it usually involves potatoes and meat as well, with a side of pickled ginger. I love it.

Japanese kare!

6. Sushi:
Of course. The main star. Japan is obviously the king of sushi, from the ultra-expensive swanky tasting menus in Tokyo's most intimate sushi bars, to the local cheap, quick, and easy conveyor belt sushi joints. You can find the gamut of sushi everywhere, it's super available, and yes, it is more delish here than back home.

An amazing chirashi bowl

My omakase sushi tasting at the Tsukiji Fish Market - sushi at its simplest, and most delicious

Kaiten sushi! Which is conveyor belt sushi. They usually just charge you by plate, and most have the option of you being able to order specific items from the sushi chef that they will send you directly through the conveyor, in case you're iffy about how long the sushi's been chilling on the belt (I never am, though maybe I should be....?)

7. Tonkatsu:
Lightly tempura deep-fried pork cutlets. Sometimes topped with an egg.  And a side of cabbage. And then dipped in a special tonkatsu sauce (they have special sauces for everything here!).

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8. Japanese Desserts:
Yo. I know I keep gushing over every item, but Japanese desserts are on another LEVEL. These are the main culprit for making me fat when I studied abroad. And in the 2.5 weeks I was in Japan this time around too. You all know who to blame.

I think it's because there's so much variety, they're usually very light, and nothing is too sweet (I hate the oversaturated sweetness you get in a lot of the American desserts). Japanese cakes are light, fluffy, and decorated/presented so beautifully that you think there's no way they can be that bad for you. Red bean desserts are delish. Green tea ice cream rules my life. And the other things they come up with, man....

This strawberry cream puff was epic

DO YOU SEE THIS WINDOW OF EPIC DESSERTS?!! I may have walked by, and then dragged Karim back later to sample one of the ridiculous ice cream parfaits

Here is said green tea ice cream parfait. Perfection.

An epic wall of crepes

K8 and our dessert crepe we couldn't resist having in the middle of the afternoon

9. Other:

Contrary to belief, I was not running around Japan taking photos of every thing I was eating (ok lies. I was.) But there were things I def missed taking photos of that are more than mention-worthy. In fact, these are some other must-eats I haven't mentioned yet: sukiyaki (Japanese hotpot), Japanese BBQ (they marinate the meat and it's AMAZE), karage chicken (fried chicken), shabu-shabu (I don't know how this differs from sukiyaki, tbh), and so much more! There are so many more foods that are region-specific, or variations on the items I've already mentioned. You could seriously eat your way through Japan. Also, go get yourself some udon.

And gyoza! Though I'm fairly certain these were originally stolen from the Chinese.....
But that doesn't make them any less tasty

Fun Eating Rules of the Day:

• Again, no eating and walking. It's rude. But yes, it is also torture to be holding something delicious and not being able to eat it while you're walking. The struggle is real.
• No passing items between chopsticks. Also rude. You have to put it on the plate first, if you're trying to get a food item to someone else.
• It is bad form to stick your chopsticks standing up in your rice, as this symbolizes what you do at a grave - and it's bad juju.

Namibia: Windhoek Wrap-Up and Travel Tips

Our road-trip across Namibia wrapped up after 10 days, as we headed from Sossusvlei back to the capital of Windhoek.


Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Drove through totally deserted landscape to get back to Windhoek. And by totally deserted, I mean totally.  I had skipped lunch in favor of a shower at the campsite, thinking I could get lunch along the way. Wrong. No stores or restaurants for most of the 5 hour drive. We'd see towns on the map and get super excited, then you'd see like, one tiny building and the town would be over.

Randomly, as I was starting to dream about food, we ran across THIS restaurant. In the middle of nowhere!!  FATE.  Except not, because when we followed the sign, the place looked like it had been abandoned years ago. WHY KEEP THE SIGN UP.

• As we pulled back to Windhoek, I was perusing my assortment of glossy brochures (I like to pick them up everywhere we go) and came across a super-fancy lodge that was 15 min. outside of town, called Sun Karros.  It looked gorgeous - it had a huge pool, a fancy restaurant, and it was located on its own national park so guests could do their own game drives.  So that's where we ended up staying.  Cost for a fancy chalet there?  Over $200.  Cost for us to camp in their super-fancy campgrounds?  $8/person. 

Driving into Windhoek, a pretty half rainbow!

The saddest thing is there are so many super-fancy homes and estates in Windhoek, and you literally drive 5 minutes out, and there are tons and tons of slums right there.  We did manage to drop off a huge bag of our leftover camping supplies to a family walking outside this area, and they seemed very grateful, so that was nice. (I hope they like pencils. And cookie sprinkles.)

And then this sunset happened while we were driving

Bear with me while I post like 5 photos of the gorgeous sunset. So fitting for our last Namibian sunset ever

It looked like the sky was on fire

And when you looked to the back, there were gorgeous pink skies

• The next day, we didn't have to return our car to Windhoek until 4pm, so we definitely took advantage of that by hanging out at the fancy lodge.  First, we took a drive through the lodge's private game drive road (I know I said no more, but this one was freeeee!).

Ready for our short game drive. It's helpful that this park has no scary animals that can eat you, like lions - it mainly has lots of deer-like creatures, birds, etc.

We scared a bunch of wildebeest off the road

Then I went hiking by myself along one of the lodge's trails. It was gorgeous and it ended up at a dam, where there was this HUGE WHITE STORK-LIKE BIRD that freaked out when I approached and flew away stat.

This is the crazy amount of water the dam is holding in

To cap off our day at the lodge, I spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool sipping fizzy water (my new obsession). *sigh*

• Namibia was such an adventure - an amazing blend of totally different landscapes, untouched nature, and vast swaths of gorgeous emptiness. And with that, my quick Namibs travel tips!

Namibia Travel Tips:

• Namibia is a great place to rent a vehicle - all the sights are super spread out, and public transportation isn't that available or convenient (hence our hitch-hiking in the beginning).  Not to mention that car rentals aren't that expensive, and they don't even care if you have an international driver's license (because I don't!) - my TX driver's license served them just fine.
• Main sights we saw: Etosha National Park (one of the best for wildlife viewing), Swakopmund (German-influenced town on the coast where you can access the Skeleton Coast), Sossusvlei (crazy red sand dunes), Windhoek (just a cute little capital city). 
• Main sights we wanted to see but didn't have time: Fish River Canyon (gorgeous rocky hike views), Opuwo (extremely remote and feels like the end of the world, off-the-beaten path and good base for traditional village-exploring and Epupa Waterfalls, etc.)
• English is the main language, so super super easy to get around
• Namibia has huge amounts of land, so the primary type of lodging you'll find is these huge, vast, gorgeous nature lodges (there are SO, SO many). They usually have a big swath of gorgeous land, amazing facilities, their own on-site restaurants (stand-alone restaurants are really hard to find outside the city), etc.  Most of these lodges also have campsites - where you can camp out for literally a fraction it would cost you to stay in the pricey rooms.  And you can still wander around the restaurant/pool/facilities and mingle with all the rich people staying in the rooms and pretend you're one of them. 
• The Namibian dollar is pegged to the South African currency, the Rand. Easy for conversion, and also helps us a little since the Rand has recently taken kind of a nosedive.
• Taxis in major cities are shared taxis where prices are negotiated. So don't be surprised when you're trying to wave one down, and one pulls up with 2-3 people already stuffed inside.
• No visa fees! Hooray!
• Water. Bring lots of water.

Next up, South Africa!

Travel Tips: 10 Travel Tips, Thoughts, & Takeaways

On a momentary hiatus post a pitstop in the States - I'll be back on my world adventure Monday, loyal readers!  But thought I'd take a minute to write a brief post on travel thoughts/tips/reflections/learnings, a.k.a. a random assortment of things floating around in my head at the moment.  So without further ado, here is my list of 10 Travel Tips, Takeaways, and Thoughts:


1. I love traveling alone.  

I feel like I used to meet people who traveled alone, and 95% of me thought it was amazing and totally bad-ass and super impressive.  And the other 5% of me (if I'm being totally honest) thought it was a little weird.  I thought it took some kind of special weirdly independent personality to be able to travel alone, or someone with more of a "lone wolf" mentality - maybe someone who didn't always like to be around people all the time or something.  

But now that I've done it, I can say with certainty that old-school Connie was wrong (typical).  I was initially a little hesitant because I love being around people and I didn't know if I would like being alone so much.  But I love traveling alone.  It's been the first time I've been able to do anything I wanted - with no one else's opinion, pressure, guilt, or structure. I can choose to pack a day full of as many nerdy museums as possible, or I can sleep in and drink an iced coffee by the pool all day.  And nobody cares. It's seriously the most freeing feeling in the world.

That time I was in Plitvice Lakes alone, so I took the opportunity to take a billion selfies

Not just that, but it's been very easy to meet people on the road.  You meet travelers everywhere (unavoidable, really) - it's a special community where people seem to be friendlier than usual, and you already share a basic love of travel with everyone you meet. Solo traveling is incredibly common overseas, and the beauty is that when you want to meet people and be social - you can. If you don't, and you want to spend the day all alone - you can as well.  I can only think of a handful of times over the past 4 months when I wished I was traveling with someone because yes, it does get a little lonely once in awhile and you sometimes just want a friend to appear so you don't have to try anymore, but those moments are not as common as I would have initially thought.

2. Most useful travel item = packing cubes. 

Given that I've been traveling at a fairly breakneck speed, I cannot tell you the amount of times I've had to unpack and re-pack my backpack (sometimes every day for an extended period of time).  It seriously is enough to drive one totally insane.  Packing cubes have saved my life - I know exactly what is in each one and what belongs in each, and it's just made the whole process of constantly unpacking/repacking my entire life just a tad bit easier.

Packing cubes, you are my hero(es)

Other incredibly useful travel items: my scarf (I have used this a million times to cover up my shoulders or legs at holy sites), selfie stick (see Exhibit EVERY BALLER SELFIE I'VE POSTED), and leggings. I wear leggings on all my travel days, and you cannot make me put on a pair of jeans to save my life.  Also, a lot of useful items are region-specific - for example, in SE Asia, I would have died without my mosquito spray, travel sheets, and anti-bac - but I didn't use a single one of these items in Eastern Europe.  

3. There are some not-so-great things about traveling the world (I swear). 
I know, you wouldn't believe it if you've been following the blog, given the overall theme seems to be "gushy."  But it isn't all sunshine and roses.  Living out of a backpack is exhausting - seriously. You don't know how much you appreciate being able to spread things out, or not having to constantly lock up your valuables, or not only owning things that fit into a backpack - until you live out of a backpack. It is also sometimes exhausting having to always be "on" - especially if you're meeting new people all the time and having to always be friendly - some days I just want to not talk to anyone, watch YouTube videos, and not get out of bed.  Which confession, I've done.  My wrists had constant heat rash almost the entire time I was in SE Asia.  A hostel roommate smelled so bad once that I couldn't fall asleep the whole night.  The bathroom situation in some parts of SE Asia can only be described as "horror movie."

I realize how bratty these problems sound compared to real working life, like I'm whining about being on perma-vacation. And obviously, the amazing, life-changing, breathtaking parts of seeing the world are exponentially greater than the bad.  But it's weird - it's like when you travel, your new set of problems have the same weight as your old set of problems. Yes, traveling is incredible, but that smelly roommate that prevents you from breathing consumes your new life just as much as getting passed over for a raise did in your old life. Just like meeting new fun traveling friends who become your besties and closer than family for the days you travel together, and then you move on and never speak to them ever again. It's just another weird part of the traveling world.

Despite this, I do feel the need to reiterate that overall, I am still completely in love with every second of what I'm doing.


4. Believe it or not, I do have favorite countries I've visited.

The #1 question I get asked by friends and family is which country has been my favorite.  This may be because, as stated before, I have a tendency to looooove everything, and think everything is the cutest, best, most amazing ever.  (Is it really a problem to like too many things?? Ponder THAT.)  But I do. While I've legitimately thoroughly enjoyed every single country I've been to, and have amazing moments and memories of each, there are of course some that have stood out in my mind.  I can't choose one - but I have a couple I've narrowed down for specific reasons.

For overall experience, I loved Turkey. Turkey had it all: beach, mountains, city, coast, historic sites, etc. And they were all amazing. Not only that, the people were insanely kind and hospitable, and the bus system is one of the most convenient/easily-navigable systems ever, since they basically have buses that go anywhere you could ever dream of.

Cappadocia, Turkey <3

The most breathtaking site I loved was Petra.  I had only seen photos of the Treasury (the famous red sandstone building you always see in photos of Petra) - but I hadn't realized the scale of the entire thing. There are literally dozens of buildings you can visit - it's like a huge, vast labyrinth of buildings in different locations, and you can choose whatever path you want and explore wherever you want and feel like a total BA explorer - not to mention the sheer scale and detail, which are both insane.  Closely following are my experiences in Bagan (insane temple wonderland!) and Cappadocia (seriously crazy rock formations).

Petra, you are killing me with your amazingness

Most naturally beautiful was Laos. Seriously, that whole country is super jungle-y, super undeveloped, and super Jurassic Park-esque.  It is unbelievably wild feeling, which I loved.

My favorite city so far has been Budapest.  I guess it's because I had no idea what to expect, and the entire city was the cutest, hippest, coolest collection of cafes, restaurants, and bars ever. Add to the fact that it was cheap, and the riverfront (and Parliament building) are absolutely gorgeous.  Budapest = way too cool for school, and I loved it.


5. The people I've met have been some of the best parts of traveling.
There's something about being in your normal, everyday life where you're surrounded by your kind of people.  And trust me, no judgment here because there are a million things about "normal, everyday life" that I'm missing. Case in point: walking by my old office in NYC last week, I almost burst into tears. Because I missed work a little. *cue mind exploding*  But at home, you're surrounded by people like you - people in similar age ranges, or people with careers and similar responsibilities and upbringings and ways of thinking.

Traveling, however, you meet so many totally different people - people with completely different upbringings, life experiences, culture, and ways of thinking.  They all have their reasons for traveling and for being where they are in life - I've met students on summer holiday, people trying to mend broken hearts (much more common than you think), people in career crises or on work trips or starting up a business or taking a life hiatus. There's so, so many stories out there - and it's fascinating getting to see and experience them all.

That time I met the greatest, best group of fellow solo travelers ever in Hoi An, Vietnam

6. I didn't bring a single book or magazine on my trip.
It's not because I don't like reading. I love reading (ask my poor parents who had to banish my sister and I from reading books when we were young because we were reading too much. True story.)  But as silly as it sounds, I didn't want to miss a single moment of what was actually happening in life. Most times, I have a guidebook and my journal in my bag (guidebooks don't count, obviously) - these are usually what I pull out to read or write in if I'm sitting alone in a cafe or something and really need something to do.  The history section of the Lonely Planet is incredibly enlightening, on a side note.  You can thank it for a lot of the "Fun Facts of the Day".

Is it possible to be obsessed with guidebooks

7. Traveling is cheaper for me than living my normal NYC life.
A common misconception is the amount of money it takes to travel.  I realize my expenses living in NYC were probably slightly elevated compared to other locales, but I'm actually spending far, far less now than I was when I lived there.

My apartment rent in NYC alone ran about $60/night - not to mention the added cost of food ($15-30 a meal, not including those ridic b-day dinners people always had that always cost $100/person, even if the person next to you drank 5 more glasses of wine than you) and entertainment and transportation and shopping....and just life.

Southeast Asia isn't even fair to compare because my hostels averaged $5 a night, meals averaged $2-3, transportation $3-5, and even the most extravagant tour/activity would hardly exceed $30.  Beers in Vietnam were $0.25, for heaven's sake!  But even comparing Eastern Europe, where hostels were about $20 and meals were ~$8, it's been shocking how differently I've been spending. Even when you add in the long-haul international flights and buses and trains.  Also, as a side bonus, I haven't shopped at all because I can't stomach the thought of hauling it around in my backpack for months. Living out of a backpack is a great way to prevent yourself from buying things.

8. I've only lost 5 important things.
That is a good number. It is supposed to wow you.  These include: 1. My unworn Puma shoe, 2. Blackberry (oops), 3. waterproof phone cover, 4. tennis shoes (in my defense, they were wet so I had them in a separate bag that I left in a cab), 5. my favorite dress (and this doesn't even count because one of the laundry people lost it).  Pretty good, CW.


9. As a solo female, I've never felt unsafe.
Seriously, never.  When I'm alone, I am on higher alert - but thank goodness I've not yet had a situation that's made me feel unsafe.  There was a time I accidentally bought the wrong train ticket to Budapest, and I ended up at some rando train station at 10pm at night with no ATMs or info counters or people (and I had no money given I'd come from Vienna).  But I ended up finding some other random train that happened to be heading to the right station and got on, and it was fine.  Or the time an overly chatty local teenager approached me in an empty station and made me slightly nervous, but she just turned out to be a curious and chatty student (as I had a death grip on my backpack and purse the entire time, poor girl).  Or the time in Vietnam when I was in a taxi and the man had locked us in while demanding money 10x higher than the normal cab fare - luckily that time, I was with a friend and we argued our way out.

Honestly though, nothing has happened so far that has elevated my concern over a 3/10.  I'm incredibly thankful for that, and some of the best advice I've received so far is to trust my gut. If a situation even feels wrong (even with no reason or proof or anything other than a feeling), remove yourself out of it.  To be totally honest, I feel like people almost want to help me more because I'm a solo female, especially when they see me pathetically struggling with something.


10. No time is the right time. Except now. Now is the right time.
Another worry of mine initially was that I was too old to be backpacking. Yes, I am definitely typically the oldest person in a group of people, but I also have met a surprising number of people in my age range. SE Asia does skew younger because it is so freakishly cheap, and it's been summertime for most of my travels so I've probably met a greater share of students.

But I also appreciate everything so much more now, more than I would have 10, even 5 years ago.  I've worked, and I know how suffocating it can sometimes be to always be in a cubicle and have your Up band constantly vibrating to let you know that you haven't moved a muscle in an entire hour.  I know how it feels to not be able to take extensive time off from work to travel.  I appreciate the value of money, and not just money but also the time and freedom and what I was working for. I like to think that I've had enough life experiences to fully appreciate every single second that I'm not at work.  Maybe this is why I love everything.

On the same note, I often also see much older groups of tourists - and they just can't navigate the cobblestone streets as well, or climb that crazy mountain path that is a million lawsuits waiting to happen. They wouldn't be ok with staying in that hostel room with no A/C or locks, or riding that 12-hour bus because it's $50 cheaper than a flight, or kayaking down a river alone with no instructions. And at those moments, I know this is the perfect time for me to be doing this (disregard the local Vietnamese women who were appalled when they found out my age and that I was unmarried and childless. You seriously should have seen their horrified expressions).



Next stop on my travels is Malaysia - I'm sure I'll be gathering more useful gems of knowledge to pass along on this next leg, in case you were afraid I'd expounded all my wisdom in one go - see you all then!

Travel Tips: Crossing the Israel/Jordan Border By Land (Eilat to Aqaba)

Of everything on the Middle East leg of my trip, the thing I was most nervous about was crossing the land border between Israel and Jordan.  Looking on the internet, you will find stories of those who crossed with no issues - but then you will also find horror stories of long waits, arbitrary delays, difficult border guards, etc.  The thing about the Middle East is that you never know - rules constantly change depending on the day and situation, so I was nervous about the unexpectedness of it.

There are three land checkpoints between Israel/Jordan: the one we went through was the southernmost point called the Wadi Araba checkpoint (it's called Yitzhak Rabin on the Israeli side). This checkpoint takes you from the city of Eilat, Israel on one side, to Aqaba, Jordan on the other.

From Eilat, we took a taxi to the border, which took around 10 minutes and cost 30 NIS (about $10). The taxi dropped us off right at the border.

This way to the border crossing....oh and birdwatching!

The first gate you see when you pull up - the Yitzhak Rabin Border Terminal

• The border terminal opens at 6:30AM, and we'd heard there are times when you will encounter long lines (especially sometimes in the mornings with tour groups).  But when we arrived around 10AM, the entire terminal was pretty empty.  We walked up and an Israeli policeman checked our passports.
• From there, the process was pretty seamless.  There are a series of windows you visit in order.
• The first window (passport control) checked our passports again
• At the second window (customs), we had to pay an Israel exit fee of 104 NIS per person (about $30).   At this window, the lady also gave us an option to change cash into Jordanian dinars using a debit or credit card (which you will need as soon as you exit on the other side to pay for a cab).  Lastly, she stamped our passports with an exit stamp  - you can request her not to do so, since an Israel stamp in your passport can prevent you from entering countries like Iran or Lebanon.  I was too slow to react - that stamp came out of nowhere!  Drew was not too slow, and she was fine stamping a receipt for him instead of his passport.

Walk this way to Jordan.  But first, go buy things duty-free

• Then they make you walk through a duty-free store - just a small one, but there are signs everywhere telling you this is your last chance to shop before entering Jordan.  We used every last penny of our NIS on water and a pack of Twix (the cheapest item in the entire store). 

Looking back...leaving Israel

• After you exit the duty-free store, you approach the no-man's land between Israel and Jordan. 

Eating our breakfast of Twix from the duty-free store and walking through no-man's land

Welcome to Jordan!

• As you enter Jordan, another passport check. Then a security scan, where they screen your bags and belongings. The guards started off a little tough with us by demanding we open our bags and show them everything inside after they'd gone through the scanner. However, in the midst of opening Drew's bag, they started a conversation with us about the NBA and their their demeanors got lighter as they were talking about how much they love the Lakers (yuck why).  Both guards started chattering away and seemed to forget they hadn't opened my bag yet, so we took advantage of the situation by smiling at them, nodding a lot, and picking up our bags and scooting out of the room.  Thank goodness they didn't get into my bag - it was stuffed to the brim and was probably one of those situations where once they started taking things out, I'm not sure it all would have fit back in. 
• More windows. We got our passports checked a couple more times, a couple questions about why we were entering Jordan, and entry stamps/visas stamped into our passports.  As my passport had already been stamped by Israel, I didn't care what was stamped into it afterwards, so all was good with me. However, Drew asked the guard not to stamp his again (because even if you don't have an Israel stamp, if you have a Jordan stamp in your passport showing you entered Jordan by land, customs can deduce you were in Israel beforehand).  This time however, the guard refused and stamped his passport anyways. Whomp whomp.  However, I'm not sure if this was due to a miscommunication, because I've heard of people being able to make it through this border crossing completely stamp-free.  
• Typically there is an Jordan entry visa fee of around 40 Jordanian dinars (~$57) - but somehow we were not charged. I don't know if someone forgot to charge us. Oh well.
• Upon exiting the terminal on the Jordan side, there is no public transport or anything - just a group of taxis. It is known in traveling circles as the "taxi mafia", as they basically have complete control over how much to charge you since you have no other options. You can take a cab into the nearby town of Aqaba, but we were heading to Petra (about 2-3 hours away) - so we hired a cab to take us all the way there.  It is very taxi mafia-feeling - there was a sketchy man who was seemingly in charge and ordered the drivers about and had us move our bags from one car to another. The second car he moved us to, I saw the driver had to pay this guy some money. It was not the most comforting feeling, but at the end of the day, we got to where we needed to go, and at a price we saw was fairly comparable to what we researched beforehand (about 50 dinars, or $71) to go all the way to Petra.

All in all, the entire border crossing process took around 30 minutes for us. We've heard horror stories of some crossings taking hours and hours, or interrogations and such - so overall, I think we got pretty lucky and our experience was almost completely seamless (save for the tiny passport stamp fiasco. I hope I don't have a pressing need to go to Iran or Lebanon anytime soon).  

Beforehand, it was surprisingly hard finding complete, thorough information on the entire process online (or information that wasn't a couple years old anyway) - so hopefully this might be slightly helpful to someone, somewhere.  Even if not, it was an incredibly interesting process that I'm glad I got a chance to do and wanted to detail.