Personal Blog Passes 1 Million Page Views in 1.6 Years

Thanks to everyone. Thank you so much!


By the time I post this article, this blog will have surpassed 1 million page views in 1.6 years. That's pretty awesome if I say so myself. That may not be the record but it must be pretty close for a guy who just started blogging with no fame or corporate backing to help him out. Thanks so much to everyone. I could never have done it without you all.

Major companies can get a million page views, they have status and name-value. But for a personal blog on a very niche subject like mine (Japan, marketing and media - and in English no less), that is an incredible number. I have asked a few Internet expert friends about it and they told me that it was "amazing." I like to think so.


When it comes to blogging about Japan in English, I would venture to guess that there may not be another 3 or 4 personal blogs in the entire world that have surpassed 1 million views! It is especially rare when you consider that I never blog at all about gadgetry or gaming. (I do know that there was a very excellent ramen one that I passed by one time that did have more than a million views and I've looked for it to show you, but couldn't find it.)


I like blogging. But there is frustration... Well, I should say that blogging, in and of itself, doesn't frustrate me that much but when I am asked for marketing advice (mostly buzz marketing of which blogging is an integral component), the frustration comes in when people (especially corporate types) - just don't seem to understand... They give lip service to blogging and her sister "Organic Marketing", but when push comes to shove, they just don't "get it." They invariably will go back to old ways and pay money to have their paid advertising show their company at the top of a Google search result...


Oh hopelessly lost souls!



You've really got to stop and wonder why in the year 2012, when the Internet is so integral to our lives and thing like, say, Facebook has over 750 users that most corporations have a Marketing section whereby not a single one of them blog... 44% of Japanese companies don't even use Social Media... And those that do, do it poorly... Alas...

These sorts make great bloggers.

Blogging is like being a mad scientist in a laboratory: You are basically on your own trying out different subjects, titles, word combinations, file namings for images, tags and keywords to see what gets good results. There really isn't any textbook for doing this. The closest thing is David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR but that's already nearly five years old! And, in the life of the Internet, five years is ancient history! (By the way, David Meerman Scott and I have corresponded and he greatly encouraged me to start this very blog!)


Here's some of the great things I've learned through blogging over this last year:


1) How to get #1 rankings on a Google search without paying any money


2) How to do the same for images that will lead to your website without paying any money


3) Credibility is very hard to get, it is nearly impossible to buy. Blogging and Organic Marketing are truly credible methods to get the message out.


4) Merely by blogging and experimenting, you will understand more than 98% of all people - even Internet engineers - how marketing works (or doesn't work) on the Internet.

Blogging is a study experience for me. I do this to learn new techinques. Things are always changing the only way to do it is to, well, do it. Like I said, this blog is like my laboratory and I am the mad scientist. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out how this all works... But, I must admit, one thing doesn't change: In Japan, sex and cute sell. 


It frustrates the beans out of me when I write something that I think is really good and intellectually fulfilling, yet it gets few reads; but when I write something with lots of photos of sexy Japanese girls, it will get thousands of reads... Er, maybe i should say, "views" from all over the world. 


But, even that is a learning experience because I know how to take the exact same content and get a few hundred views or get 100,000 views. There is a method to the madness!  


The things that make me happy the most about blogging is getting nice mail and intelligent comments, even if they disagree, and meeting new people. 


Blogging can be exhausting, but it can also be rewarding. Through writing, I think I help myself to become a better person as writing is excellent therapy for the soul. In that way, I suppose, it wouldn't have mattered if I had never even reached 100 readers.


As an old Zen Buddhist saying goes about charcoal ink painting: "The valuable thing is the moment of painting, not the the final picture."


Absolutely the same can be said about blogging.


My next goal is to hit 2 million page views in January 2013. Thank you so very much for your visiting this blog sometimes. I do sincerely appreciate your time and most kind consideration.

NOTE: Finally, please allow me to indulge myself in this self-congratulatory message and to thank my friends who helped me to get here: First off, my friend, Lew Rockwell, who gave me my very first break in blogging in 2004; Koji Kamibayashi "Nihon wo Genki ni Shitai;" My friend Mish Shedlock over at the Global Trend Economic Analysis Blog; Yuka Rogers "Official Blog," David Meerman Scott, Tim Williams,  Jimbo "Jimbo's Japan," Andrew Joseph "It's a Wonderful Rife," Ryu Oni "Monkeyman in Japan," and so many others (especially bloggers) who have come and gone over these last 20 months. Oh and I have to thank Seth Godin for his great books and the one he autographed for me!

Finally, to my friends and to those who are thinking about blogging; Most bloggers don't last more than 2 ~ 3 months. It gets frustrating. You write your heart out and then only three people read what you wrote. In the first two months of this blog, in my archives, I have many tips on how to get more page views, if you are thinking about blogging, or want to know how to get more views, perhaps you can find something useful there. I hope so.

Or, you can do it for yourself... That, my friends, is where, I think, you'll find the real rewards.

Once again, thank you to everyone!

Keywords: page views, buzz, organic, buzz marketing, 1 Million Page Views, therapy, 1,000,000, hits, reward, page views, Japan blog, amazing, incredible, marketing, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, personal blog, blog, blogging,   

Benefits of Blogging: I Made $400 Extra in Guam While on Vacation!

There are so many benefits of blogging that can profit you both spiritually as well as financially... But, as with many things in life, you've got to stick with it. 


Lord knows how many times I've wanted to quit writing for blogs. But, for better or worse, I've stuck with it. Now, I think if I quit, I'd wind up feeling like I lost a friend.

My blogging: The early years

Today, I want to give you an example of how blogging, for me, has done many great things for my well being (my maturity) and for my pocketbook. Besides making money, blogging has helped me to become a more patient and wiser person. I think blogging is a sort of therapy for the savage mind. It's worked wonders for me and it has made me money. Yes, folks. It's true: I have made lots of money with this particular blog you are reading right here and I allow no advertising on it. I'm not sure that it is possible to make any money from a blog that has pop-up ads, unless, of course, you get a few million readers a day. This blog has made me money because of what I write about and the wonderful people it has helped me to meet.  


I have been writing this Marketing Japan blog now for just over 1.5 years. In that short time, I have surpassed 850,000 reads (thank you!) At this rate, I expect to surpass 1 million reads by the third week of February or so. Besides this blog, I have also been writing blog posts for Lew Rockwell (LRC) since 2004. At Lew Rockwell, I am in the top 10 most published writers with almost 250 articles. Lew tells me that a popular article on LRC will get over 1.5 reads. In 2005, I had the #2 most read article on that blog. 


In this time, and over these nearly eight years, blogging has helped me to grow as a writer and as a person and has helped me to meet a great many wonderful people. It has also gained attention for me and my work, and has had the unintended consequence of having people ask me for advice or even getting me paid consultation work for their businesses. Many of those requests  (for advice) I rejected because I felt that I wasn't expert enough on the subject. In those cases, I introduced someone else who could help better than I.


But whether I do the job directly and get paid, or I help someone or help my friends, then there's enough reward in that for everyone.  


I'd estimate that, in 2009 ~ 2010, beginning with experience and information contained in this blog, I earned approximately $2000 a month in consultation and marketing and promotional fees.... I also got a consultation job for one friend and full time employment for another. Of course, in my case, I had to do a lot of work and go to many meetings and come up with marketing ideas, but that's not so bad for a part time job whereby I set the hours and come and go as I please.

Vacation in heaven? Guam! Yep. Only 3 hours by plane from Japan 

Besides the above, interestingly, I also "earned" $400 while I was on vacation in Guam the other day! Seriously! Pretty wild, eh? Well, here's what happened: 


At the end of December, I took my son, my wife and her parents and her sister to Guam for a family vacation. The in-laws are getting on in years and, as in-laws are wont to do, they keep saying that they want to go on "one last vacation together with the whole family before we die." (I think many people have relatives like this. They, like my in-laws, have been saying this sort of stuff for years... I wonder where we'll go for our "last vacation together" next year? Anyway...)


We went to stay at a very nice hotel in Guam (that I promised the hotel manager I would write about and I will soon). The hotel had connecting rooms and their own golf course. This is a great hotel and the rooms were large, clean, well-kept and a bargain at $200 dollars a night - don't forget that this was at Christmas time so prices that low at such a fine hotel are unbelievable! 

They even have Santa Claus in Guam

We choose this particular hotel because it was the in-laws wish was that they could go golfing together everyday. My wife and her sister would go shopping everyday and that left me to go play in the water park with my son. Get it? The parents golf, ladies shop, I babysit.... So much for "spending our last vacation together"! It was ok. I'd rather spend eight hours a day in the pool anyway because I don't like golfing and I really don't like shopping at boutiques.


We checked into the hotel and everyone went to their rooms. Our plan was to stay at this hotel for seven nights. Like I said, this vacation was paid for by me so everyone was my guest. Unbeknownst to me, the air conditioner in my in-laws room was broken. Since they are old people and I was paying for it, they didn't say anything about it at all. I didn't find out about the broken air conditioner until the forth morning at the hotel. I walked into their room and it was baking!


I asked my in laws why they didn't turn on the air conditioner and then they told me it didn't work. I checked it and sure enough, it was broken. I was a bit upset and asked them why they didn't tell me sooner. They said that they didn't want to complain and, if they did, they thought it would hurt my feelings.


Bless their hearts. I understand. They know I was paying for the vacation and they probably think I this hotel was the best I afford so they didn't want to make me feel bad about the accomodations. Old people are like that, I guess. Especially old Japanese folks who have rarely travelled outside of Japan; they don't know what to expect. I told them that I was going to complain to the manager about it and demand a room change and a discount. They told me not to complain. But I insisted that I had to. Heck, for all I know the hotel didn't know the cooler was broken.


From past experience, reading books (and experiences with this blog and dealing with comments and people) I have learned that getting angry is not a good negotiating tactic. I calmed myself and went down to the lobby to see the manager to make a business negotiation.


When I got there I met the manager. He was a very nice man named John. I explained the situation. John promised me that he'd look into it and switch the rooms immediately. I also asked for some satisfaction and a discount. He told me that he'd have to inquire to the sales division (understandable, this is a huge and famous hotel) so he'd get back to me later on.

View from our hotel room at Onward Beach Hotel. Fabulous!

When I met John again, he arranged the room transfer and, for that, I was happy. But, he said, that the sales department did not approve of a discount because we should have told them sooner. Yes, that's true. But I also explained to him about the in-laws and the "how's" and "what for's" and why they didn't tell me. They didn't tell me because they knew I was paying and probably thought that this was the best I could afford and if they complained, I'd feel bad. Fair enough, I figured. I can understand how older folks think. John agreed with me.


Even though he agreed, he said that it would be really tough to get the sales department to change their mind. We went back and forth a bit and I felt myself getting a bit hot under the collar.


That's when I pulled out my ace-in-the hole. I told John that I was a blogger and that I blogged for one of the most famous political and social commentary blogs in the world: Lew Rockwell and I also write this blog. I didn't have a business card, but, as I have written before in how to market yourself in Internet and Social Media? Get a Great Name, that having a great and easily memorable and unique name is critical.


I said to John,


"Listen John, I don't want to fight or hassle with you, but not getting even a bit of satisfaction in the form of a discount for the room isn't good enough. Now, when we reserved the room, we reserved a room with all the amenities and that includes an air conditioner that works. Please, I need more cooperation from you guys. You don't know who I am but I am a sort of well-known blogger. Please go to Google and search "Mike Tokyo." That's me at #1 or #2. I write for one of the most famous blogs in the world. Now, I don't want to write a bad review about this hotel. In fact, everything except this broken air conditioner has been just fine. And I'm not asking for something outrageous. Just some satisfaction. But if your sales doesn't want to make me happy, then you will lose a customer and I will write about this.... Because, well, because I am being forced to pay for something that wasn't as advertised and that's bad business. So please go back and ask again."


John said he understood. He looked me in the eye and shook my hand. With that, I walked off and we agreed to talk again the next morning.

The next morning, when I saw John, he smiled broadly at me. He told me that he was a big fan of Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell!!! He said he told the top director of the hotel about my case and they both agreed to cut the first four nights rate from $200 a night to $100 a night! I was so pleased. I was also so impressed that John was that kind of go-getter aim-to-please type of guy. He didn't have to go bat for me like that. But he did. He always has my business from now on. I like that sort of attitude.


What a diamond in the rough John is!


Actually, though, besides being happy, I was stunned. At first I thought John  meant that he was cutting $25 a night off the price, for a total of $100 and that would have been good enough for me, but they cut the price in half! $100 a night! Wow! That's $400 in my pocket right there! And all because I have a big mouth and I blog.

My wife was so happy too. Not only did we get a $400 discount, but they moved her parents into a bridal suite that was twice the size of the former room. Heck, the bathroom and shower in the bridal suite was the size of my dining room back home in Japan! When I saw the room, I thought, "Wow! This is really classy! These guys know how to treat customers!" What a wonderful place to take that someone special in your life for a honeymoon, anniversary, or just for vacation. 


I knew it! I blew it. I should have told my in-laws to take my room and we'd sacrifice by taking the bridal suite. Serves me right for not being more sneaky. Ahem!


Anyhow, the verdict is in for me: Blogging pays... Doing it consistently pays much better.

Onward Beach Resort, Guam. Highly recommended. http://www.onwardguam.com/hotel/en/

NOTE: The hotel we stayed in in Guam was the Onward Beach Resort. We have been to Guam now six times. We have stayed in the Nikko Hotel, the Hilton, Plaza Hotel and few others whose names escape me, but, for overall room quality, food, service and pleasant experience, Onward Beach Resort has been, by far, the best experience we've had in Guam. We will be staying there again next time.... If you go there, tell the manager, John, that I sent you. (Oh, and John, don't worry... I won't be asking for a discount again!)

Rock Solid Case For Ron Paul in Two Paragraphs and Facebook

Establishment (Prior to) Ron Paul Victory in Iowa: "The Iowa Primary is the most important election since the establishment of our nation".

Establishment (Post) Ron Paul Victory in Iowa: "Iowa is not significant, these aren't the droids your looking for". (Waves Hand) - Blog commentator


Mish Shedlock gets my award for the best economics blog of 2011.

In today's blog post, he links to a piece he found at the European Disunion Blog and says that this quote is a rock-solid case for the election of Ron Paul in just two short paragraphs.


The post?

Don't want endless foreign wars, but do want a strong military for defense? Vote Ron Paul. Do want bankers to be subjected to greater scrutiny and accountability? Vote Ron Paul. Don't want the government to tow the line of corporate interests? Vote Ron Paul. Do want to be allowed to say and think what you will - even do what you will - provided that it does not harm or infringe upon the rights of others? Vote Ron Paul. 

Ron Paul is the only candidate who does not accept donations from big business - his campaign is funded entirely by individuals. Yet it forms policy from a conservative outlook: pragmatic, rather than idealistic, with any reforms carefully considered before implementation, with a strict doctrine of fiscal prudence to boot. In short, it is the perfect blend for individualistic yet reasoned and cash-strapped America. 


Read more great commentary daily from Mish at the Global Economic Analysis Blogspot. I like it so much that I read it everyday and have it bookmarked.


Also, by the way, Ron Paul is skyrocketing on Facebook while the others are dropping like flies. Check out the Elections Inside Facebook Page:

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Want to Make Money? Forget Online Gimmicks. Don't Know Where to Start? Start Where You Are Standing

"Money is usually attracted, not pursued." - Jim Rohn

"The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket." - Kin Hubbard

------

In the last two days, I've had two people ask me about making money by blogging. Or, more specifically, one person asked me,

"Is it possible to make money blogging?" 

To this person I answered (in my usual long-winded self), "Well, I don't accept advertising on my blog now as I want to be able to write whatever I want and to say what I want. It is hard enough to always talk about those things as it is. I am always worrying about what other people might think about me when I honestly state my shortcomings, my chequered past, my failures and complaints. It's hard enough to do that as it is without having to worry about what paying people might think. So I don't have advertising now. It keeps me from having just one more worry. But you can make money blogging."

54 and still here - chequered past still here too!

The other person asked me, 

"Mike, I want to blog and make a bit of money with it. What do you suggest?"

I told him that he should just start blogging and then worry about how to make money with it after starting. I also quoted Lao-Tzu:

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step" - Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

This is a good quote but allow me to be completely anal-retentive about it. Even though this is the popular form of this quotation, the correct translation should be:

"The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet." 


Rather than emphasizing the first step, Buddhists, Taoists and Lau Tzu believed that action was something that arose naturally beginning with the act of being still. Another potential phrasing would be "Even the longest journey must begin where you stand."

I think, in today's modern language this would translate into something like, 

"Well, don't just stand there. Do something!"

Lao-tzu saying something important

Making money blogging? Hmmm... Can be done. The easiest way is to allow pop-ups click through ads on your blog. I dabbled with that long ago, but stopped it because it seemed like the algorithm was bad. Why? Well, I'd write a blog post railing on Groupon and calling it a crummy company, yet on my page, there'd be ads for Groupon. Stuff like that happened all the time. I didn't like it, so I stopped it.


Then, just the other day, I got another letter from a company overseas who wanted to pay me $150 a year to place a banner on my blog. I don't know if I want to do that or not. Far be it from me to poo-poo $150, but, in Japan, $150 isn't a lot of money and I wonder how I'm ever going to get the money anyway from a foreign company. Hell, I think the bank transfer will cost them $50-some dollars. Are they really going to pay? I wouldn't. And, do I really want an ad for some UK marketing service on my blog?


Probably not. 

Anyway, there are ways to make money from blogging... Probably not a lot at first; probably not a lot ever. But, you have to at least start somewhere.


As for me, I don't blog for money. I blog because, and I'm dead serious about this, I think  logging has helped me to become a better person.


Blogging has kept my mind working.


Blogging has helped me to become a better parent.


Blogging has taught me patience.


Blogging has made me feel good.


Blogging has helped me help other people and charities.


Blogging has helped me make friends around the world!


I think blogging has it's own rewards... Even better than money.


You should blog too. Blog about what you want to blog about. 


Everyone has a wonderful story to tell. We'd like to hear yours!

The Millionaire Blogger?

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” - Charles F. Kettering

"The Millionaire Blogger." That's what my friend had told me that he was going to call his blog pretty soon. "The Millionaire Blogger!" pretty cool, I thought. "Ron" figured that by March of 2012 or so, he'd have a million reads and his new business would be worth at least about $5 million-plus US dollars to him by 2013. So, he figured that he could be one of the very people who is a millionaire and blogs. Ron was hoping that he could blog and help others make money and live better... I liked his idea.


Well, now, he figures that he can hit the million reads mark, but the $5 million-plus dollars might have just gone up in smoke. Poof! 

You read that right; I've said before that I have some very rich friends, but I also have many almost rich friends. One of them is my friend Ron. 


Ron and his partners (and investors) started a new company that they had  estimated that would have sales of about $20 million dollars annually by end of 2013 and, if Ron sold his founding shares in the company, he stood to gain anywhere between $3.5 to $10.5 million US dollars. Not bad for four years work.


Ron told me yesterday that things seem to have not turned out that way at all. I had warned him.


Ron said that some very disturbing facts have come to light, so he had gone through serious bouts of worry, desperation and stress... Sometimes Ron  says he spends an entire day depressed and starts drinking early in the day (I know, he'd been calling me and ask me to come over many times up until six weeks ago). Ron said his wife thinks that he shouldn't get depressed, but I understand Ron. I would imagine that most people who spent nearly two years working without pay on a brilliant project and then started up that project to great success only to find out that they'd been screwed by their investor, would be depressed. 


Some people would want to kill themselves... Or the investor. I might fall into the latter category. 

I can't go into too much detail, but, just two months after starting up his new company, Ron and crew were such darlings and big news in the media that they drew attention from some of the biggest investment firms in Japan. Soon, they were able to have one of the biggest and most famous companies in Japan become a strategic investor. People were blown away. I was. I said to Ron, "You guys just started up! How in the world did you manage to get that company to invest in you?" Ron just smiled.


I think most people might be depressed when they found out that the strategic investor wasn't actually interested in their company and their idea as a separate, mutually beneficial entity but were only interested in stealing that companies ideas and technology and using it for themselves.


It looks like they did that too... In spite of my efforts to warn Ron and his partners what I thought the real motivations of their strategic "partner" were. Ron listened to me. But Ron's parters were all on seventh heaven when they concluded an agreement for investment. This deal was big news all over Japan.


Ron told me about negotiations and I gave my advice. Things he told me just  didn't sit right with me and I warned Ron. Ron tried to warn his partners, but they wouldn't listen. They were convinced that the partner was interested in them as a mutually profitable partnership. I suspected that they were only interested in using Ron's idea for their own ends. I convinced him of the same.


Soon, though, Ron and partners only saw dollar signs in their eyes, I was still suspicious of the investors motivations... In fact, at the only meeting I attended, I felt that I could read the investors motivations like a cook book sitting open right in front of my face. The thing on the menu? Ron's company.


I was right. But, as a mere advisor, I can only do as much. Ron and his partners took the bait; hook line and sinker. They refused to listen or even be suspicious.  They signed the contract, the partners got their way,... So, now Ron's company  lost. 


Ron's company lost the battle. But they haven't lost the war. 


Like I said, Ron told me that he had been depressed and seriously stressed out, but something happened to him six weeks ago. We met and I recommended to him that he change his mind and take it easy and not to stress out about it anymore. I told him to read a blog post by James Altucher who talks about how he lost MUCH more money, $20 million dollars to be exact, and, instead of lying on the bed getting depressed, he decided that he was going to "surrender."


Yeah. That's it. He surrendered. Surrendering didn't mean giving up, it meant that he allocated his fate to "whatever happens, happens." 


That's what I told Ron to do a month and a half ago too. To give up. I have always believed that everything happens for a reason and, if you look for the positive, you'll find it and out of any bad experience, something good will come.


I told Ron to decide to let his life go to fate, faith, God, nature, the spirits, fortune, whatever you want to call it. I told him to decide that he wasn't going to stress and fret. I told him to decide that he was going to keep on going and not let this negativity stop him. He had to keep going and doing what he does best.


I told him to remember that the company that stole his companies idea and technology may have won the battle for now, but they haven't won the war. There is still a huge opportunity sitting there and I ask that he consider picking up the pieces, assessing the situation with a calm and collected frame of mind  and figure out how to put them back together into something even better than before.


Just because, say, a convenience store across the street comes out with a new  cash register, that doesn't mean Ron's convenience store on this side of the street is going to lose all their customers and close up shop. Nope. 


This might sound contradictory, but here's the way I would see it if I were in Ron's shoes. I told Ron that I would think: 


"I may have lost everything already, so I haven't anything to more to lose. They can't do anything to damage me anymore at all. So there is nowhere to go for me but up." 


Things can just only work out for the better that way. 


They can't damage me anymore, but I can do damage to them. Great ideas come from great minds. They have stolen an idea, but they haven't stolen my minds. Positivity will create more great ideas. If they had great ideas, then they wouldn't have needed to steal mine. So, this incident just proves that they cannot create innovation, but I can. I will. Time is on my side."


I asked Ron that he and his CEO and staff come up with some new ideas. Ideas that they would have never imagined had they not been forced to think of a different way and a different angle though this experience.


It worked like a charm! I saw Ron yesterday and we had lunch together. He was a changed man.


He told me, 


"Mike! I have given up my fears and given up my stress and worries. I have, like James Altucher recommends, given up my future to "the Force" (Star Wars) and, no, that doesn't mean that I am going to lay down in my bed and pout all day, that means that I am going to think, plan create and grow.

I believe that, from this experience, my company and I can be taken on a different plane and a different path towards success... In fact, since we have come up with a new brilliant plan we are more convinced than ever that the new way is better than the last. Now, instead of grief and despair, I can see how we can make an even better project and make even more money. Thanks to you.  


But, as with all things in life, nothing is certain and it is a bit of a gamble. But isn't that what's exciting? After all, what is a successful business? It is not a breakthrough technology or just a plan. There have been many companies that had excellent plans and totally new and breakthrough technologies that have failed. But the successful business or plan is created by having great people; the right people. I know we have the right people riding on the bus and we are going in the right direction.


I'm thinking now that our new plan will greatly upset our "partner" because we've set it up so that they are left out. They took from us what they thought was useful. But, the problem is that, if they knew what they were doing in the first place, they would have never needed us. They took what they wanted but failed to recognize the future of this business. We were in it longer than they were and have already seen from the streets the results of our efforts, we had already been evolving the process. They have just kicked off their system (that is a mirror of ours several months ago) filled with all the things that we realized were wrong a long time ago. We certainly are not going to point out the error in their ways.


Several months may not seem like a long time, but in the Internet business, several months is a lifetime.

I won't look to our strategic "partners" as "criminals" - what one of my founding partners called them - but will look upon them as the competition... 

They might be the competition but we were the originals and we are the ones who are the leaders and the creators and the ones who will always be the innovators. They won't. They will always be the copy machines. Drones without new ideas."


I was so happy to see Ron back to his old self. Ron's always been one of these super go-getter guys. You know,  ready to climb Mount Everest by lunchtime and at a dinner meeting in Paris by 7 pm.


There's a lesson here from Ron for you, me and all of us.


I don't want to get depressed, stressed or mad. You shouldn't either.


In my case, everyday, no matter what, I have decided to keep doing the best. I won't get sad and I will keep going out and meeting people and talking about and promoting my business. I will keep reading books and sharing new ideas. 
We all need to take a total assessment of our situations at all times. Things might seem bad at this very moment, but look at the situation overall. That there are troubles and difficulties are expected and obvious. Rome wasn't built in a day. We all must use our way of thinking to create good self-fulfilling prophesies and not negative ones. 


Regardless of your situation, you can do the same thing too. Do not fret about your situation, but use it as a lesson in life. Use it to learn and to better yourself. Falling into a state of worry, fear or depression, will only make the situation worse. Remember the story about "self-fulfilling prophesy." You can create a better situation for yourself but you must first create that situation in your own mind. 


That's what I am going to do... As well as giving myself up to fate and faith and knowing that, if I always do right by myself and others, good things will surely come to me. And they can come to you.


Like they say, the best revenge in life is success.

Tokyo in 1979, 1984 and Today

All my life I've thought that having a diary was a good thing. I never started writing one because I was; a) way too lazy. And, b) Never really thought what was going on was worth writing about...


Actually, that last part is not exactly true... I thought it was interesting enough, it's just that I was always too drunk/high or fatalistic and figured that I'd die before I finished the book about my life's story... So why bother? I wouldn't get the royalties for the movie rights anyway. 


I reckon that makes sense in a twisted sort of way.


One guy, though, that seems to have been keeping a diary for all these years is my friend Andrew Joseph. He writes a blog called, "It's a Wonderful Rife." "Wonderful Rife" is all about his escapades as an English teacher in Japan in the early 1990's. Sometimes he has some really steamy stories that are quite full of ribaldry and sex. One such story is a recent posting about a hot babe named Junko. I think Andrew is in that story too somewhere, but I can't remember...

Read more about Junko and her other "friends" at

It's a Wonderful Rife

Ahem... 


Well, as you can guess... I've never written a diary. That's why, sometimes, I use this blog for one. Recently, Andrew's postings have inspired me to tell a short story about what Tokyo was like when I first came to Japan in 1979... Then, in 1984, when I moved here for good.


Today, in 2011, Tokyo is full of foreigners. Foreigners are not unusual at all in today's Japan (excepting way out in the countryside I hear). But it wasn't that way not that long ago. It used to be that foreigners were like movie stars in Japan merely by the fact that they were foreigners. I know. I was here when that was the case.


I first came to Japan in December of 1979. I was a Southern California boy and a university student. The Socialists who were running the government in the California at the time had something they called, "Affirmative Action." What that meant was that they thought they could use your tax money to even things out for others. If the population of your town was, say, 50% Hispanic, or some other minority, then they did some social engineering and required that all schools, government positions, and scholarships had to be divvied up amongst the Hispanics and whites 50/50.


At that time, I was a half-Japanese American guy at university. Having a Japanese mom and American dad put me in the classification as a "Pacific Islander" (nonsense, sure, but I didn't make the laws). Most of the Japanese American kids I knew studied stuff like becoming a lawyer or doctor. I was studying television. I would find out later that, at my entire university, I was the only "Pacific Islander" studying television (those were the days way before Tricia Toyota and Connie Chung, and all these other beautiful Asian American women you see so often on TV nowadays). 

Since I was the only "Pacific Islander" and I had very good grades, that set me up for a scholarship... Are you sitting down?... That was in 1979 and the government of California gave me over $7,800 to go to university! It wasn't a loan. They just gave it to me!!! Can you believe it? I couldn't either.


Of course, I didn't waste that money on school or books or stuff like that! I wanted to use it to have fun! I found out how to go around the system (It's the government after all! Of course they were all messed up!) and I got the check cashed and immediately went and spent a large part of it on taking a one month vacation to Japan.


I stayed at some friend's house in Chiba but, most of the time, I stayed at my girlfriend's house in Kawasaki. I didn't have much of a clue as to what was going on the entire time I was in Japan because, even though I was half-Japanese, I was too stupid to bother learning any of the language before I got here. After all, the second language of the Japanese people is English right?... Wrong!


One day, my friend in Chiba decided to take me to a prostitution parlor... Er, I mean, a massage parlor, er, I mean a "health parlor" called, "Soapland." He  brought me inside and I sat in a waiting room. It soon became apparent to me what kind of establishment that place was and I got very frightened! I know! I know! I am a wimp, but I was only 19 at the time and had never, ever paid for sex and wasn't about to then.


I'm not that kind of guy!  

Yes. She could frighten me out of my pants!

Like an idiot, I ran out of the Soapland and into the "pink" area of town and was completely and totally lost. Like I said, I couldn't speak any Japanese so I was walking around trying to get someone to help me find my way back to where ever it was I was going to....


In Japanese, the word "lost" can be said a few ways. There is "makeru" which means like, "I lost the game" and there is "mayou" which means like "I am lost and can't find my way" (as well as a few others). I opened my Berlitz dictionary and looked up "lost." There I choose the first definition which was "makeru." Which means, "I lost (the game)"....


But, "Makeru" can also mean "discount" too! So here I was walking around the pink area of town and all these yakuza looking types were trying to get me to go into their parlors for some paid sex and I was looking for someone to help me get back to my friend's place. I kept mistakenly saying, "Makeru!" (I'm lost!) and they took that to mean, "Give me a discount!" They all smiled and nodded and welcomed me into their places.


I couldn't figure out why they didn't understand that I needed help. They probably couldn't understand why, when I asked for a discount, and they said, "Yes!" yet I kept walking on. Finally, after wandering around totally lost for over 2 hours, through a stroke of blind luck, I found a police box and the police helped me to find my way back. 


I knew that I had better not take a chance and get lost like that ever again!


A few days later, my same friends took me to Shibuya to drop me off so my girlfriend could pick me up and take me to stay for the remainder of my trip at her home. What a relief that was! At least her English was pretty good.

I was taken to a very famous landmark in Shibuya. It is known by all Tokyoites and visitors to Tokyo as 109 department store. It still stands today as an extremely well-known landmark and meeting place. When I was taken there to meet my girlfriend, 109 had just finished construction and it was the pride of Shibuya.


My friend dropped me off and told me to stand in front of 109 department store, but I was early by an hour or so. Even with that, I was quite leery of going off and adventuring by myself because of the recent experience in Chiba so I thought I'd better stay put and wait for my girlfriend.


So that's when it happened. And that's the first amazing part of this story. I told you that there were no foreigners here at all. There weren't. While I stood there waiting for my girlfriend, all sorts of people were walking by me and pointing and staring. Some people said, "Hi!" I said, "Hi!" back.


After about 10 minutes of waiting an extremely beautiful girl walked up to me and said in very good English, "Why don't you come and have a coffee or tea with me?" I thought, "WTF? I didn't know this girl. What was going on here?" Even though she was a babe, I declined because my girlfriend was a babe too and, after coffee, what was I going to do? Where would I stay?


I know what you are thinking: "Duh! This Rogers guy is a real moron!" And, yes, I would agree with you.


Well, I said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the beautiful girl and just thought, "Wow! What an awesome babe!"


But it wasn't just that girl. After her, three different extremely gorgeous women walked up to me and, in very good English, basically asked me the same thing! The last two really blew my mind. One said,


"Oh, I'm sorry. She's not coming, you know. Why don't you just come along with me?"


The last one was even more brash and said, 


"She called me up and told me that she can't make it, so she wanted me to take you to dinner." 


I thought, "You know my girlfriend? Are you sure? Wait a minute!" 


Finally, not being the sharpest tool in the shed, it dawned on me what was going on. These girls were actually trying to pick up on me. I couldn't believe it!  In all the years I had lived in the USA not once did a girl ever ask me out for a date excepting Shanda Shinkaruk, my very first date which was a Sadie Hawkins "Backwards dance" when I was in ninth grade. Now, here I was in Japan, standing on the street corner and, all within an hour, four different girls... NO! Four different extremely awesome sexy Japanese girls who you'd die for were trying to pick me up!


It was like I'd died and gone to heaven!


"What a wonderful country Japan is!" I thought. "I want to live here!"


That was 1979. You may think I am totally stupid, but, my girlfriend, by the way, was a famous model at that time and was on the cover of magazines... That's why I thought twice about dumping her for these hussy women... Today? Absolutely not! I wouldn't think about it for 1/2 a second before I'd be massaging their toes and cooking dinner for them every night!


Anyway... Between 1979 and 1984, I came to Japan many times and, each time, I never wanted to return to the USA... Finally, in 1984 or so, I got fed up with the USA and my job and decided to move around the world. I wrote about that in Working With Thieves Liars and Crooks. But the first place I wanted to live was, of course, Japan.  


In 1984 foreigners were still rare in Japan - and popular with the women, and that led to my first divorce as I was unable to control my hormones.


I still feel sorry for my ex-wife and kids about that. Forgive me. The How to Survive Women Blog has an excellent article about that entitled: Cheated on - Now What? 

But I digress.


By 1984, when I moved to Japan, I had taken several courses in Japanese language at my university and was one of the top students in class (it didn't hurt that there were many Japanese exchange student women living in the dorms with which I could, er, "exchange" lessons with.)


I landed a job with an English school in Shinjuku, then Iidabashi. Since I could speak some Japanese, I was the liaison between the Japanese staff (managers) and the few foreigners on roster. 


Those, my friends, were the glory days of English teaching in Japan.

Yen to dollar rate from 1985 to 1989. From 1985 to 1989, the US dollar lost 1/2 its value against the Japanese yen. English teachers were being paid $50,000 a year - or more - working part time teaching English!

In those days, since I was in management, I know, there were English teachers at our company getting paid, I'd say, on average, ¥700,000 per month. Some were earning over ¥1,000,000 per month. ¥700,000 per month, in 1985, was "only" about $2,756 per month in USD. By 1989, that was about $5,512 per month... And that was for 20 hours a week of classroom time!


Think about that! English teachers were so rare in those days that they were earning, on average, more than $60,000 a year in 1989. People who couldn't get a job mowing lawns back home were pulling down $60 thusand dollars a year teaching part time and sleeping with their students! Since I was a measly liaison, I was only making $80,000 a year to babysit those dumb foreigners (maybe not so dumb, eh?) I even knew a few guys who were making twice that amount.


Like I said, those were the Golden Days of English teaching in Japan. No matter how much I warned other foreigners around me, people played and spent like the gravy train would never end. So don't tell me that teaching English in Japan is a crap job, I remember when it was an awesome job!


Like I said, English speaking people were a rarity and we were always short of them. My old boss, Mr. Hasegawa, and I would go to Shinjuku station and hang around looking for foreigners to teach classes for that evening. We were desperate! If the foreigner was walking and breathing, then they qualified for a teaching job.


We even hired white guys with the names of Ewvig and Euwie (from Austria and South Africa) and told them to say their names were Eric and Ernie, just to save, er, "confusion"... Oh, and don't forget to say that you are from "Canada" or "Nevada"... That's to "explain the accent."


I remember a guy named Arya who, during class, wowed the students with some great phrases like, "Someone explain me this!" or "How to someone say that?" Seriously, he really did say things like that. I cringed...


But it didn't matter...


Those were the days. Us foreigners were rare and oft sought after. We got paid gross amounts of money. Even if we were the dorkiest jerks in town, we got the hottest girls... And why? Not because of our training or education, but just because of our looks, even if they weren't good. Just because we didn't look Japanese. We had the place in the top of society just because of who our parents were and where we were born. Pure and simple and stupid blind luck.


Today, being a foreigner in Japan is no big deal... In fact, in many circles, it is now a detriment... It used to have style and pizzazz! Not anymore.


There is no real moral to this story excepting that I can say that Japan, up until the mid-nineteen nineties was pure men's heaven... I thank god to have been able to have lived through that, in the right place, and at the right time.

Seriously, she was one of my students... Well, at least several girls who look exactly like her were.

NOTE: Later on, I'm going to have to write about when I was a teacher at a girl's high school... Now THAT was a dangerous job. There were at least 9 awesome girls in my class. Or the time I was teaching another class and a girl that easily scored a 10+ wanted to talk to me after class and she started unbuckling my belt while we were discussing her score... Of course, I gave her a 100... Both jobs I quit immediately... Like I said, they were way too dangerous.