This blog in review: 2012

I meant to get this out before midnight, while we were still in the old year here in Japan. Still, I don’t think it’s too late to look at the year in review. The platform I use for this blog sends me an annual report with statistics on things like where my readers are, what they look at most and how they find me. It’s always revealing and sometimes a hoot.

More of my viewers are in the United States than any other country, followed closely by Japan, the UK, Canada and Australia. Germany is right behind, but all in all, I’ve got readers in 137 countries, including Slovakia, Chad and even Yemen. Thank you all for reading!

Many of my readers click through from my columns in The Japan Times. Others find me through internet searches, with the top search terms this year being my name, followed by “dog nail art,” “randoseru” and (ahem) “Japanese ass.” I seem to turn up in that particular search because of this post on the persistent misuse in Japan of the English word “hip.”

Over all time, one of the top three search terms is “famous bridges of Japan,” which brings readers to this post. Interestingly, almost all of those hits come from India! I get that feeling that somewhere in the Indian school curriculum there’s a homework assignment to look up the famous bridges of Japan.

My third most popular post of the post about bloomers, the infamous gym shorts Japanese schoolgirls wore once upon a time.

This year, my Top 3 most viewed posts were:

#1 — April’s Pretty Paws post, about manicures (and pedicures) for dogs.

#2 — My Japanese balcony garden is still bringing in readers. I wrote this post in Nov. 2011.

#3 — Another oldie but apparently goodie: my post about Japanese money envelopes.

I’ll be coming up with new content regularly. Let’s have a great new year!

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