Here kitty, kitty...
When I left Japan, I wasn't sure what would become of this blog in particular. For one thing, I didn't know what my access to Japanese snacks would be like. I knew I might be able to find a few things here and there, and had hoped to make some connections to sellers who might shower me with freebies to promote their services (ahem, that did not happen), but my crystal ball as to the future was very foggy.
Now that I've been in Northern California for about 8 months, I know that this is a pretty good place to be to review Japanese (and other Asian) snacks. While they're not exactly sold in every market, there are plenty of markets that sell a variety of food items. That being said, it's not quite the same as actually being in Japan from certain viewpoints.
The main area of difference for me isn't access because there were always many more things than I could possibly sample and review in Tokyo. Having a wealth of options didn't mean more posts because there was only so much time I had to devote to blogging. In fact, even with my more limited (but still very wide) access, there is more stuff available than I could possibly review so I'm not exactly hurting for things to try.
The point which has changed the most has been my ability to size up the snack market in Japan. While I used to be able to stroll through markets or convenience stores and see the new releases and inventory at a glance, I have had to work rather harder at that since returning. It has taken me awhile to get up to speed in this regard, but I've got my finger a bit more on the pulse at this point in time and it's actually a lot of fun tracking new releases through the means I currently have available. It's changed how I blog in a way which makes the experience fresher for me and creates new challenges.
Because of this new way of dealing with following what's out there, there is every chance that more "bonus" posts will be showing up more often. It's not out of the question that I'll be posting something every weekday at times. There will always be the three scheduled posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but those of you who are using bookmarks may want to also pop buy on Tuesdays and Thursdays from now to see if there are extra posts. I do anticipate more of that sort of thing in the future.
The frequency of posts leads me to the topic of Google Reader's imminent demise. If you are tracking my blog's updates via RSS using said interface, I hope you will migrate my feed to another reader or bookmark the page. My concern, as I'm sure is the concern of many bloggers, is that the death of Reader will mean a great loss of regular readers. Clearly, having more readers encourages me to continue the blogs and to build the content more, so I kindly ask that you find a new way to keep me in the rotation if you're a user of Google Reader (as I am) as this blog isn't going away any time soon and I'm quite diligent about posting at least 3 times a week on the days previously mentioned. Hopefully, you'll find that you'll be getting even more for your money in the future. ;-)
As always, my thanks for continuing to read this blog.
9 comments:
I really enjoy your posts. =) Your writing style is very pleasant and informative. I am happy you have found a bit of new inspiration! Keep up the great work!
It's tough losing GReader. It is how I keep up with blogs that don't post every day.
I'm using The Old Reader, but that doesn't update as often (for my true news feeds) so I'm still searching.
However, on that note, I'd like to ask if you can put an image in the truncated feed. Sometimes I like to have a reference shot to entice me to click through (or at least save for later).
I read your blog regularly and just wanted to express my appreciation for your efforts. Informative, interesting and often quite funny! Glad you've stuck around :)
I use Google Reader but have already migrated to Feedly, which is excellent actually. I'm very glad to be able to carry on reading your blog - thanks! (^_^)v
I've been trying out feedly and the old reader. Both sucks, but I've migrated all my feeds. Can't live without my RSS reader and the blogs I follow =)
Thanks to everyone for the kind and supportive comments. I really appreciate it (as well as your continued reading).
I haven't migrated my feeds yet, but I'm going to look into "Old Reader" and "Feedly" since they were mentioned by a few of you.
Cybele: I tried to find a way to do as you asked, but Blogger appears to be a blunt instrument. It seems that it's "all or nothing". Unless I'm missing something, there is no way to include images without including the full content. And feeds no longer allow ads (and ads are the only way for me to make a pittance off of my copious amounts of work and I need that pittance now that I'm unemployed), so there we are.
Allow me to put my 2 cents in here. This is the same 'issue' i've run into. The thing is, unfortunately, I don't have a great selection. That said I don't have a lot of time as well. Thank you for doing what you do, I know how hard it is sometimes to sit down and actually compose something
Please go ahead with bonus posts! I find your articles interesting and informative. I have your blogs bookmarked so not too affected with the Google Reader issue. :)
Thanks to both of you Bradley and Bamboocopter! It'll be interesting to see how things shake out when Reader ends. I decided on Feedly, and have found it acceptable after the past several days of using it. You may want to give it a go.
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