Wow. What a year’s it’s been. A lot has changed since I did my review of 2008. We’ve seen the financial world explode, virtually every celebrity on the planet die, and Rage Against The Machine take Christmas Number One. Quite an eventful year, to say the least. Today I’m going to take a month by month look back, with links to old blog posts. If you’re relatively new to reading this blog, this might well be a good place to start. Also I really should go back and do 2006 and 2007 at some point. But first I need to complete work on my time machine.
If you want a more thorough list of blog posts, hit the archive.
January 2009
Exams in Sheffield. Feels strange, writing this sitting in Japan. Just 11 months ago this seems like an impossible dream. How time has flown, I suppose. I wrote a handful of blog posts, my favourite of which was A Japanese Guide To Skipping Work. I chose this one not so much for it’s topic, but because I think of the ‘comedy’ articles I’ve written it’s one of the best. I had a lot of fun writing it, and it serves as a reminder not to be so damn boring all the time!
February 2009
The hardest month to spell was also the hardest month to write in apparently – just two blog posts make Feb 2009 my laziest month of the year. Apologies if you wasted this month just sitting at home refreshing my blog waiting for a post. You need new hobbies. Anyway, post of the month was the Sheffield Japan Day 2009 – Photoshoot. I had great fun taking those shots and it is a reminder of the work that went into that event – not only mine, but the entire team’s. (Actually, they did a lot more work than I did)
March 2009
I suppose it would be lazy to pick my birthday as the best day, but that’s only because I’m sure you all would too… right? It’s going to have to be Jobs For Kenji The Stalker Robot I think, simply because the post got linked to from a lot of other blogs, and it’s always nice to be part of something, rather than the sheer cold isolation I usually feel.
April 2009
I lied! February was not the only month with 2 posts – April also saw a dive in my writing rate. Apologies again. At least it’s easy to spell. This month was spent back at uni, working away at probably the hardest content we ever studied. (Statistics and other horrors). Most memorable post is Japanese Blog Launched, mainly because I still use it now, and it is nice to go back and read once in a while. Makes me all happy inside to see all those squiggles actually mean something once in a while.
May 2009
Lots of posts this month, I suppose the rest in April did work. I wrote quite a few reviews this month (including D’EspairsRay and Densha Otoko) but post of the month is obviously Japan Day 2009. Watching all that work come together at the last moment was an awesome feeling, as was performing Soran again (video here) and having some fun performing the quiz on stage. (For which I used really old blog content for jokes. They call me ‘unoriginal Mike’, you know).
June 2009
It’s summer! Not that you can tell in freezing England. Anyway, at some point in the haze of complex grammar combination and alcohol, I started thinking about my year abroad. Study Year Targets & Goals is a nice list of stuff I want to do. The fact I haven’t done any of them yet is somewhat scary, but in the new year I’m going to have a lot more opportunity to travel, so I should be able to get some, if not all, of them done.
July 2009
The end of the academic year (I think!) It also marked the end of me studying Japanese daily, which I still regret now, but whatever. It gave me more time to chill out, spend a lot of time with the exchange students and have a nice time before flying to Japan. How Not To Stay At A Love Hotel could possibly be my favourite ‘comedy’ post of the year. It’s sharp and snappy, and I love it when I go back to one of my old posts and smile at a joke. Yes. I’m that sad.
August 2009
A tough month. The countdown to Japan is definitely on. Yet I remember this month really dragging by. I was going to choose my trip to London to get my visa as the post of the month, but I think Sunny Scenes At Stanage, Sheffield is a nicer post – it reminds me of my family, and back home in a nice way. Also it proves once and for all that England does get good weather. I’d also like to thank the special effects team for removing all the driving rain and hail in those photos.
September 2009
Japan! Wooo! I wrote 10 posts this month, the most of any of the year, for obvious reasons. I’m back! It’s hardly changed at all! Hurr..err…yeah! It’s very hard to choose a blog post, but it’s fun looking over them – I think the day after I arrived in Tokyo my writing style really shifted – it’s more ‘upbeat’. Lots of exclamation marks. Like this! I suppose Safe And Sound In Tokyo, despite being a bit of a boring post (no pictures!) is the most memorable. Finally back!
October 2009
Settling in can take a long time, but I remember waking up one day in early October and feeling like I was at ‘home’. Not just the dormitory, but the area I live in. So my photos of Warabi City act now as a nice memento, and no matter where I end up I can remember what it felt like living here. Awww.
November 2009
There’s no way I can’t choose Exploring Like It’s ‘06 this month. The new volunteers joined me on a trip to Meiji Shrine. I did honestly feel like I was back, all wide-eyed at the novelty of everything, despite three years having passed. It was really refreshing, and even though they weren’t there, it reminds me of Matt, Nate, Rolf (the volunteers of my year) and everyone else I knew ‘back then’.
December 2009
So here we are. A pretty slow month blog wise, mainly because the amount of time and energy I spent at Sophia was so much. I think Festive Radio Silence is a nice summary post, though. I didn’t really update for a while but it’s nice to be able to read just one article and get a load of information at once.
By my count, I just summed up 12 months in just over a thousand words. That is a scary feat, when you think about it. But it’s done. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope you enjoy whatever I write in the future. I also hope Christmas was great for everyone, and that 2010 is another exciting and fun year.
Here’s To A Great 2010! Thanks For Reading!
From Mike @ JapanIsDoomed.com
