Each year seems to pass faster and faster, but I guess with every year I get older that is bound to happen.  This year has been a whirlwind of change, but not in the way that I was expecting.  I had big plans that I announced last year but with great regret that has not happened.  I changed gears and other big things have happened and I’m happy to announce that things continue to grow.

HinoMaple

HinoMaple continues to chug along at its own pace and I keep it up mostly for nostalgia.  While this blog is part of HinoMaple, I tend to think of the other areas of the site as being HinoMaple and this blog as being Dru’s Misadventures.  Hopefully more will come with this site but it is now perpetually on the back burner, ready to come forward when I have more time to devote to it.

Going to Okinawa

Dru’s Misadventures

The blog continues to be what it is, a blog of my life.  Unfortunately my life has been taken up by other activities and as a result this blog is going to suffer next year.  I will continue to do my best to update things and have new content but realistically I can’t see that happening beyond the beginning of the year.  I am already planning to wind things down from 3 posts a week to 2.  I still have enough from the Setouchi Triennale in 2016 to last another year but my own personal life has been quiet in regards to travel.  I had 2 major trips in the past year, one to Okinawa and one back home.  I don’t really have much else to write at the moment but whenever I do have new content you can be sure that I will be writing about it.

Emerald Beach

Taiheiyogan

As you all know, Taiheiyogan was launched in July of this year.  It has taken all of my time and all of my life.  It is an endeavor of love and hate at times.  It is a massive sinkhole for my funds and definitely not easy to continue along with my aspirations to keep this blog running.  I have to focus more on Taiheiyogan at the moment as it still needs help to grow.  The content on Taiheiyogan is focused on beer in Japan and events as well.  I find it a lot of fun to talk with people in the beer industry in Japan and will continue to grow the site along with my business partner.  More things are coming from this side of things so expect more in the coming year!

Outsider Brewing

Social Media

My life on social media has exploded and fractured.  I continue to do my best with HinoMaple related posts but I am focusing more on growing Taiheiyogan, which also has a lot of social media to take care of.  My work load has basically doubled as I added a completely new set of social media accounts and unfortunately HinoMaple’s social media has suffered as a result.  This is also a result of me not having anything to post as my life in the past 8 months has revolved almost entirely around Taiheiyogan.  I will continue to update things as best as I can but unfortunately I cannot promise that.

Just a recap in case you are new and would like to know more:

• Facebook:  Mostly a portal for my blog posts
• Google+:  Same as Facebook
• Twitter:  A good place to get information on when new blog posts are published as well as when I post Instagram photos.  Sometimes I do post on Twitter, but it is rare.
• Instagram:  My main social media presence.  You can see everything I do here and feel free to follow me and chat with me.

If you want to also follow Taiheiyogan, you can follow it here:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Google+

Stats

Things continue to chug along in this department.  Numbers continue to be stable and you all keep coming back.  I can’t thank you all enough for being interested in this blog.  The most notable stat to relay is that I have surpassed my biggest day ever.  It has been a long time since I have had a big day on this blog and it finally happened again.

Year after year my Tokyo (Ueno – Corin Street, Tokyo Bike Town) post continues to do very well.  Types of Driver’s Licenses in Japan and Tonkatsu came in at second and third respectively.  Last year Sikhs in Japan and Getting around Guam were in second and third but they were pushed down to fourth and fifth.

I must thank Japan-guide.com and Setouchi Explorer for being the big referrers this year again.  Also, Rurousha did a good job even though she only reopened her blog in the last few months.  I am always grateful for people who like what I post and are willing to share links to me.

2018

I’m afraid to say that this blog is highly likely to take a hiatus in the future.  I will always have it up on the internet but I may not be writing as much in the near future.  I am running out of stockpiled posts to publish and it will be difficult for me to keep this up as I am busy running Taiheiyogan.  You can see several new articles over there and my standards are much higher as well.  My presence on YouTube will also be expanding a lot via Taiheiyogan’s channel and I will try to do a few videos for HinoMaple as well.  I am not going anywhere but sadly the content will be drying up as I don’t have time to travel around Japan as much as I used to.  Once I do get out of Tokyo again, you can be sure this blog will ramp up really quickly and I will have fresh new posts ASAP.

Dru