Moreover, because blogs – by and large, at least – do not get re-written, the first entry is likely to be tentative, and particularly if the blogger is not already an experienced writer, poorly written. Not that I’ve done much research into the matter, but I suspect that a lot of blogs begin with something like the following: ‘Now that my boyfriend has left me / I’ve been diagnosed as terminally ill / my stamp collection has become so vast that the attic floor has collapsed, I’ve decided to start a blog. I don’t really know what I’m going to write about, and I don’t really know how often I’m going to write it, but I’m hoping that it will be therapeutic, and act as an outlet for my innermost thoughts / mentally unstable ramblings / painfully geeky obsessions.’ Well, you get the idea.
So, now that I too have decided to write a blog (my second attempt – the first having petered out after life and laziness got in the way), here is my own rambling, inconsequential but hopeful first entry, and here are my reasons for rejoining the blogosphere:
1) I’m moving to Japan with Mrs Muzuhashi this spring.
2) I managed to earn a living as a writer for a while before the recession hit, but haven’t done much since, and need to get back into practice if I’m ever going to…
3) …make some kind of impact in Japan as a journalist / travel writer / foreign correspondent / translator / cultural commentator / ninja assassin.
The aim is to try and avoid too much navel gazing, and – given my ongoing efforts to become at least semi-fluent in Japanese – to get out, meet people, hear their stories, experience cultural, er, stuff, and generally use my linguistic ability to get beyond the usual ‘I like sushi! / Isn’t Hello Kitty cute! / Japanese people do the craziest stuff!’ clichés. Whether I manage to achieve this is very much open to question, and finding the time to write entries – even more so than not being good enough at Japanese – is likely to be this blog’s worst enemy, as it is with every other blog that’s ever been written in the history of the internet.
Which is all a rather roundabout way of saying, who cares what I’ve just written, because no one’s ever going to read it anyway. Give me six months or so and I’ll have readers coming out of my ears (if that’s the right phrase), and if you happen to be one of them, congratulations for trawling your way this far back through the archives. For now, it’s time to get on with the hard work and stop navel gazing.
Long time reader, first time commenter — so, thought I’d drop
a comment.. — and at the same time ask for a favor.
Your wordpress site is very simplistic – hope you don’t mind me asking what theme you’re using?
(and don’t mind if I steal it? :P)
I just launched my small businesses site –also built in wordpress
like yours– but the theme slows (!) the site down quite a bit.
In case you have a minute, you can find it by searching for “royal cbd” on Google (would
appreciate any feedback)
Keep up the good work– and take care of yourself during the coronavirus scare!
~Justin
Hi Justin and thanks for dropping by.
The theme I’m using is called Nisarg. I can’t say that I chose it specially or am particularly fond of it, and plan to either customise it in the coming weeks or possibly even go for a different one.
Your site looks very nice, by the way, and didn’t appear to be too slow when I had a look.
Good luck with it and likewise, I hope you’re corona-free wherever you are!
Tom G.
I actually enjoyed reading your first post. I stumbled on one of your December 2013 articles while looking for woodwork volunteering in Hokkaido for my circle trip and I very much enjoy your writings. I hope you’re doing great. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Hi Daniel
Congratulations!
Eight and a half years after I wrote it, you’re the first person to comment on this post, so thank you very much for finding and reading it.
I hope you enjoy / have enjoyed your trip, and if there’s anything you want to ask about Japan / cycling / Hokkaido etc, feel free to comment again any time.
All the best
Muzuhashi