Blurkers

I know I promised that my next entry would explain why I was dashing by a cherry tree. I lied. That will be the entry after this one. Lets have a chat about anonymous blog readers. About a month back I put up a hit counter on my blog. You will all be happy to notice that it is fast approaching 1000, and possibly I will remember to do a small mental jig (or maybe twirl around once in my desk chair for no apparent reason, giving my neighboring senseis gaijin brain fodder for hours) when that happens. For now though, I find myself wondering just who all these people are who read my blog. Friends! Family! You say. Well I'm sure some of them are. But it just so happens that, though I have no way of knowing who a specific person is, I can see which countries people are reading my blog from. Ha-ha! You tremble with fear.

There are people from 28 countries reading my blog. Twenty-eeeeeeight. Do you want the breakdown? Let's see the tally as of January 29th:

Japan 553 (56.72%)
United States 246 (25.23%)
Germany 46 (4.72%)
France 28 (2.87%)
Canada 22 (2.26%)
Netherlands 16 (1.64%)
China 10 (1.03%)
United Kingdom 10 (1.03%)
Guatemala 9 (0.92%)
India 5 (0.51%)
Austria 4 (0.41%)
Korea, Republic of 3 (0.31%)
Turkey 3 (0.31%)
Colombia 2 (0.21%)
New Zealand 2 (0.21%)
Portugal 2 (0.21%)
Singapore 2 (0.21%)
Spain 2 (0.21%)
Brazil 1 (0.10%)
Bulgaria 1 (0.10%)
Chile 1 (0.10%)
Italy 1 (0.10%)
Macao 1 (0.10%)
Poland 1 (0.10%)
Qatar 1 (0.10%)
Sweden 1 (0.10%)
United Arab Emirates 1 (0.10%)
Vietnam 1 (0.10%)

Yeeeeeah. I know people in some of these countries. I lived in Germany, Japan, and America, it makes sense. I can name specific friends o' mine in Guatemala, Chile, China, Sweden, among others. I can stretch my mind further and attest to knowing people who live in, er, Qatar and Turkey... though how they would possibly know about my blog is beyond me. But what really keeps me awake at night is the many blurkers of fascinating nationalities who have somehow stumbled upon my blog.

Where are they coming from?! WHERE!?! Come on, how many of you readers actually know where Macao is without looking at a map? Be honest with yourself when answering that question. Be honest! Did someone in the United Arab Emirates google "mochi " and randomly end up read my opinion about jiggling mouthfuls of grandmas arm fat? What's going on here, for the love of god?

Blurkers, it is up to you and no one else to bring me peace of mind! Leave a comment! Tell a story! In order to encourage you, I will tell a real life story about one courageous blurker who did just that. The name of the story is

Snellius, I commend you!
One day a few months ago, before the days of the Hits Counter, I went out on Friday night at a bar in Naha with some friends (this bar was the famous Paul and Mikes!) My friend Christina is chatting with a fellow at the bar, some gaijin (foreigner) that I've never seen before. I go to ask her something, and the fellow she's chatting with turns to me with a smile and says something like "Hello! You're Joyce, aren't you?" Needless to say, I am dumbstruck. A very Japanese "ehhhhhhh?!" is gliding through my head. As I stare at him, no doubt doing my best deer in headlights impression, he explains further, "I recognize you from your blog!" Snellius, from the Netherlands, was on vacation in Okinawa. Before departure, he did some google browsing for info on Okinawa, read a few blogs, one of which was mine, and lo and behold: though his adventures in Okinawa are now over and done for, Snellius is an ex-blurker risen to the ranks of faithful blog reader and commentator! Voila.

Isn't that a good story? What are the odds of a random man from the Netherlands stumbling across the blog of a teacher on the other side of the globe, then bumping into her in a bar and recognizing her from the blog photos, several months later? I tell you, there is a God. Though now that I think of it, this kind of thing happens to me frequently. Once in 2001, for instance, I met a Nicaraguan for 10 minutes in the Paris train station... fast-forward to when I lived in Nicaragua later. One day walking home from work in the out-of-the-way city of Estelí, a car stops dead in the middle of the road. And by god, guy from the Paris train station leaps out, throws his arms open to the heavens and shouts my name (which isn't exactly easy to remember for non-English speakers). Re-united! Bam. He's just driving through the city on his way to the other side of the country or something. And then there was the time me and Ainsley ran into Liz Hodley and Meredith Jenkens from McDougle middle school in the middle of the night, New Years, on the eiffel tower... the exact details of that are fuzzy. I just remember the crazy Australians we were with thought it would be a great idea to race up the Eiffel tower steps. We may have all passed out after the exertion. Oh, there was also Basti and Sven, 2 Germans who I once met in a youth hostel in Europe and, without exchanging any contact information, managed to run into again in both Spain and France.

Off subject. Again.
If you are a person from one of these mystery countries, douzo! Have a go at a comment. Nothing to say, say it anyway! Throw off the anonymity! Everyone wants to know how it feels to live in a small Portuguese speaking nation surrounded by China.