The other day, I was talking to a friend and I was telling him that I am soon going to stop writing –the statement sounded somewhat strange to him since I have been writing non-stop since he met me, 20 years ago but the truth is that I have been writing twice that long, i.e. since 1986. And I am tired.
If the above sounds like an introduction to the ending of this blog, yes, this is what it is: after 15 years and 3618 posts, Nihon Arekore is pulling down its noren, at least in its current, daily format –probably once in a while I will be writing something and posting it on Facebook and if anyone sees it, fine. For the record, the reason I am stopping it today and not some other moment is because I was waiting for it to reach one million page views; this happened yesterday so I can now rest on my laurels. Or sort of because if we divide one million by 3618 we have 276 page views per day. Which, judging by Japan’s popularity today are ridiculously low –but Nihon Arekorestarted in 2011, when Japan wasn’t popular.
I am not going to claim that Nihon Arekore contributed to Japan’s popularity –Internet did that and especially smartphones, translation and navigation apps and social media. But Nihon Arekore had an audience and, for the most part, it was a satisfying endeavor, hence that I kept it going for 15 years regardless of what was going on in my life, in Greece and in Japan. Which wasn’t little.
At any rate, thank you all for the support all this time and I hope from time to time you will drop by and check a picture or a bad joke. And I am leaving you with a picture from Asakusa (of course) and particularly from the store Yamakichi (やま吉) in Kaminarimon Dori (雷門通り) from where I bought my first raku-υακι (楽焼) tea bowl, 17 years ago –at the time there was no “Enjoy Matcha” sign because very few people who could read English passed from there. Different times.
(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore 2" set on Flickr).
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