Back, at least for awhile...

Why is he so sad when he has a beer? (Maneki neko statue at a Japanese grocery in San Francisco's Japantown)

It's been two years and eight months since I walked away from my Japan blogs. I'm not sure that I am back "for good" or on nearly as consistent a basis as before, but I am sure that there are some experiences I want to share both with any of my readers who may check in from time to time and for the sake of my deeply exploring and remembering my own experiences. I continue to believe that my writing, photographing, and talking in detail helps me remember and be more present with even the smallest of experiences.

Before I get to the purpose of this particular post, I'll say that my life has been very chaotic since returning to the U.S. and one of the reasons I think I'm ready to come back to writing here is that things finally settled down about a year and a half ago. I'm very poor at making long stories short. In fact, my greatest strength and weakness is at making short stories longer than necessary, but I'll try not to belabor my short history since leaving Japan.

My husband and I moved seven times in the five years that we have been back in the United States. This was after having lived in Tokyo for 23 years and not having moved once. We aren't the sort of people who are comfortable with such upheaval and it was very stressful. We also found our support systems limited for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I have no family and few friends on the West Coast to assist in things like moving. Since I was born in the Northeast, this is no shock. What few friends I had from a brief stint of living in the Bay Area from 1988-1989 had largely moved or (sadly) passed away.

During our five years back, we have not only experienced what people call "reverse culture shock," but also the sense that we'd dropped out of time for over two decades and popped back up into a new "America." While we rode the wave of change in Japan, we were oblivious to how Americans had changed, and boy howdy, had they changed. What is more, it was not pretty from our perspective. This difficulty was coupled with the loss of our Japanese working life and a great deal of economic upheaval which left investing in such trivialities as Japanese snacks a very stressful endeavor. I rarely made enough money from blogging to cover the cost of my snacks in Japan, and they are greatly more expensive here in the U.S. Buying such things only compounded my sense that we were blowing our hard-earned savings to no economic advantage and I found it hard to enjoy the expeiences.

Fortunately, my husband's career change is now complete and our situation is stabilized. I am now in a position to indulge a bit and consider finding new avenues to access an old love - Japanese food. I also feel that I'm now in a similar position to a lot of my readers in this regard as many of them have no access to local shops for Japanese food either. That being said, there are definitely more trivial Japanese food items in stores than expected, even in relatively isolated and rural places. Speaking of which, I am now living in a very remote place in Northern California. Few people have less access than me so, if I can find ways to buy Japanese treats from where I am and share them, almost anyone can have the foods I am reviewing.

So, I am back for a bit, and I have a pile of things to review, though I'm not likely to ever review with the same frequency I once did so expect things to be sporadic. If you have an RSS reader (I use Feedly now that Google Reader has gone the way of the dodo), I'd suggest subscribing to get notifications of new posts without having to check back for new content. My hope is to got into a scheduled situation again at some point (maybe posting once a week on the same day), but I'm not sure yet how that will go. I have also re-enabled commenting on this blog and I'm leaving it wide open now, but if my stalkers decide that's an invitation to harrass me again (because they hate me, but can't help but hang on my every word), then I may have to narrow privileges. We'll see how it goes.

Please note that cleaning up the blog will take awhile. I've got to review a lot of links that are dead and delete them from the sidebars. I'll also have to tweak formatting over time. I'm not as young as I used to be and I seem to be busier than ever despite being a homemaker now (you wouldn't believe how much and what I cook now, but we also now live in a house instead of an apartment which means more work caring for it). Be patient. I'm getting really old now. ;-)

Changes to My Blogs

I've been blogging regularly and steadily on both of my blogs since each one's inception. Both were created to serve several purposes from the outset. One was to bookmark experiences regarding life in Japan so that I could remember them as well as share my perspective on things both trivial and important with others. Another was to set myself a task such that I would develop my writing skills in different directions by focusing on a particular niche (Japanese snacks) or a particular style (short form for 1000 Things About Japan). Still another was in hopes of generating some income for my writing work. Despite my spotty proof-reading, I do put a lot of time and energy into my blogs.

I have realized two of my three goals. For various reasons, I make nearly nothing from my blogs despite having a pretty decent readership that has continued to grow at a slow pace. This is disappointing, but not the primary reason for the changes that are to come.

For some time, I've been writing a book. It's well over 100 pages now, but I keep having problems finishing it. The primary reason for this is that I tell myself each week that I'll do my eight blog posts (five for Japanese Snack Reviews and three for 1000 Things About Japan) and then I'll work on my book. All of my energy and time is taken by the blogs such that there is not enough left for the book and I have decided that has to change.

I've always been the sort of person who believes in structure and discipline. One of the reasons that my posting is regular is that I think that you have to set a goal and stick with it in order to make sure you achieve it. On 1000 Things About Japan, I met that goal awhile back when I hit 500 "Won't Miss" and 500 "Will Miss" posts, but I kept going and added in other content. On this blog, my goal was the number and type of posts and I've steadily stuck with each of my goals for a long time. It is time for my goals to change to getting the books I want to write finished instead of writing a certain number of blog posts each week for each blog.

In terms of what this means, I'll say first what it does not mean. It does not mean these blogs are ending or dying. I will continue to post, but I will be posting like most other bloggers do from now on. That is, these blogs will be second or third in my writing priorities rather than occupy first place as they have for so long. I will blog essentially when I feel like it rather than according to a self-imposed rigorous schedule.

For my kind and faithful readers, this means you'll have to track changes in some way rather than know when something new will be here. I recommend using an RSS reader (like Feedly) as it will automatically notify you of new content when it arrives, but you could simply pop in occasionally to see if anything has been posted. My best guess is that you'll see at least one post per week, but I can't say now as I haven't yet embarked on this new path.

As a postscript, I have to also say that this sort of change was inevitable since I knew at some point that I'd have to start leaving my connection to Japan behind and focus on making new and different ones. That connection will always be there as I spent so much of my adult life there, but it will fade. I love to write, so I will continue to do so, but it will likely branch into other areas rather than be monopolized by all things Japan. I hope you'll stick with me and read when I have something to say. I appreciate all of the kindness and support I've been shown over the years and look forward to continuing to offer something to those who enjoy my writing, albeit on a less frequent basis.