I just realized it's been two years since I started TokyoMango. To celebrate, I am taking a few minutes this morning to revisit the early days, and talk about why I started it and what I used to write about.
The Creation Story
I created this blog on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I guess I had a lot of things to say but nobody to say it to. Figured I could blabber about them online. I was also I was going to call it Tokyorgasmic, but didn't want to attract porn-seekers. I didn't give the name TokyoMango that much thought. I am from Tokyo, and I like mangoes.The site was hosted on Blogspot until March 2007, when I bought my own domain.The awesome design did not take effect until a few months after that, when I held a design contest and amazingly talented and generous James won and created the beautiful template that you see today.
The First Post
My first blog post ever was an image-less perspective piece about the baby prince and the divorce rate. I said: "If Divorce In Japan was a publicly traded stock, I would be buying so many shares on e*trade right now." I was all talk. Didn't even have an e*trade account until a couple months ago.
My First Big Trackback
It was from Gizmodo, on a post about a strange digitized log with speakers that's supposed to soothe you with nature noises. Naughty now-editor Jason Chen photoshopped little pictures of my face all over the log, and I was super embarrassed. Remember, this was before I started writing for Gawker blogs myself, pre-Boing Boing guest blog, maybe even earlier than the now-defunct Wired blog Table of Malcontents. I had not yet built up my now-stealthy super armor against mean commenters and libelous content online.
The September 2006 Archives
In a way, my early posts were more fun and fresh and well thought-out than my new ones. That was when I was a totaly virgin blogger, and I'm pretty sure nobody was reading. You write differently when you know you have an audience. I had a lot of personal stories about my friends, train fights with school girls, my favorite ramen shop, my friend Alyssa's YouTube Japanese lessons, made-up dialogue by potential prime ministers, and why American staplers suck.
Thanks so much for reading, you guys!
congratulations! i actually found this blog thru googling alyssa's japanese lessons. now it's on top of my google reader list! (nah, not really... haha.. fleshbot and gawker beat you).
Posted by: kups | September 05, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Happy birthday Lisa and TokyoMango!
I love your blog.
Long life for you both!
(=^-^=)
Cheers from Brazil
Posted by: CynthiaCV | September 05, 2008 at 12:33 PM
Congratulations!
Tokyomango is always on the top of my netvibes, so it's really easy to see when you've updated.
Keep up the awesome work! I'm surprised Blam hasn't written anything here yet...
Cheers from OC, California
(If you ever get the chance, definitely check out Sushi Murasaki down here)
Posted by: Parapraxis | September 05, 2008 at 01:07 PM
happy anniversary!
awesome blogs~
Posted by: mivizu | September 05, 2008 at 02:03 PM
Congratulations! My wife and I love almost everything Japanese and really enjoy your blog! Keep up the good work :)
Posted by: Spyhunter | September 05, 2008 at 08:17 PM
I cultivate my J-circle here on pacific northwest coast cause I miss Japan and appreciate the sensibility of this great site!
clear fun interesting, neh? like totally 'godzilla' , dudette! sugoi, excellent , thankyouverymuch I share with my j-circle
I wish for your continued successful webpublishing(which means please don't stop, keep it up)
Posted by: good worker | September 05, 2008 at 09:55 PM
Omedetoo! Can't believe it's been 2 years already! Keep up the good work - love your writing style among other things.
Posted by: mom | September 06, 2008 at 04:29 AM
wow, two years! congrats! You have so many loyal followers and I'm one of them. =)
Posted by: pirikara | September 07, 2008 at 01:42 AM
おめでとございます！
I see you've been posting a lot on BoingBoing too recently. 2 of my fave daily blogs ;)
Posted by: Rabido | September 07, 2008 at 06:47 PM
おめでとう！！
It's hard to believe that my country and my culture has become "hip" these past few years. If you told me this would happen even 10 years ago I would have laughed at you. But it's nice to see blogs like this that not only capture the quirky-ness of it all but also sometimes tries to educate as well.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Nobita | September 08, 2008 at 09:41 AM
Congratulations Lisa!
TokyoMango is one of my favourite blogs, hope you keep on going for many more years!
Posted by: Katherine | September 09, 2008 at 03:36 AM