Let your “Like” guide you

Back in this spring, I had an occasion to do an interview with Mr.Stefan Schauwecker, a founder and webmaster of Japan-Guide.com. If you’ve been to Japan or planning to visit Japan, I bet you must have heard this website by now. (If not, go check it.)

Cherry Blossoms blooming in our town (2012), it was beautiful as always.

It’s a travel guide site with practical information and beautiful photos. I’m Japanese who lives in Japan but I’ve been using this site whenever guests or friends need some information of our country. Simply because I find this site is far more accurate than my explanation.. (Whoever got a map drawn by me in the past, I’m sorry. And I sincerely hope that you were safe..)

Reading its detailed and widely-covered guide, I imagined this site must be run by a travel agency with regional offices in Japan. So when I read an article and found out that this site is actually run by a Swiss who lives in Gunma (prefecture where I live), I was really surprised and had so many “Why?”.

Then, several years later when the editor asked me in the first meeting if I have anyone related to Gunma I’d like to meet, his name came to my mind instantly.

What I realized through the interview was that this website is a compilation of his “Like”. Building website, Japan, train, travel, photo… he followed his interests and presented his journey on the page. And now, the site counts almost 6 million visitors in a month.

Even after the website became his job, he claims that this is still his hobby and his love for the country and the site has never faded. Probably this strong passion is the reason behind the popularity. It was crystal clear that he knows a lot about Japan. At least 100 times more than I do.. People, I think we are in good hands.

Hello world

**This post has been transferred from my old blog post. It’s really not a fault of Wordpress. It was just me who couldn’t handle their millions of options.**

Hello and welcome. I’m Setsuko, a translator based in quiet part of Japan (place called ‘Gunma’, have you ever heard about it?).

 

Addition to my translation work around mostly ‘machinery stuff’, lately I started to write for local newspaper. This work allows me to go and see the people/events in town that I’m interested in, which is great, but the paper is written in Japanese and only published in print. What a shame. I need a place to brag about my experience… no no, I mean, need a place to share it with my English speaking people …and so this blog was born.

 

I will post about what I’ve seen or heard, things I’d like to share and probably whatever comes to my mind. Let me figure out along the way… at this point I’m not even sure if I can go on more than 3 posts!

 

Thanks for visiting.