Blogs on a roll

Unfortunately I spend way too much time in front of a computer to have the energy to be an examplary citizen of the blogosphere. Fortunately I don't have any statistics utilities in operation (other than the raw logfiles which I systematically scour for bad bots so I can block the hell out of them) so I don't lose sleep over the amount of people who might or might not be reading here (hi Mum!). Nevertheless I've recently come across a couple of blogs to add to the roll on the right (if you are reading this on the main page) and thought I'd take the opportunity to mention them in the hope of gaining some bloggy karma or whatever.

First off, a Brit who lived a long time in Germany, married a Japanese citizen and moved to Japan. And no, this isn't me, it's David, aka mdid, who is also penguin-friendly and so qualifies for an entry in the list of bloggy linkiness even if he never makes another post again.

Another bogging Brit is our man in abiko, a place for which I have a soft spot because although I've never been there I did commute on the Odakyu Line for a while, which connects via the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line to whatever line it is passes through Abiko, and the platform destination signs always contained references to Abiko and other exotic-sounding destinations such as Ayase and Toride. At least they sounded distant and exotic to me, although no doubt if you get off at Abiko you will see a) a station square with some bus stops and a statue of something random like a young girl juggling pumpkins; b) a shopping street called e.g. "Abiko Ginza" or "Abiko Sun Road" containing an eclectic mix of local shops and chains such as McDonalds, Doutor and Yoshinoya; and c) a giant pachinko complex. Fortunately our man in abiko doesn't blog much about local issues, even though the place is no doubt much more delightful than I imagine, but does have an interesting and incisive take on Japanese political affairs, which deserve all the satiric commentary they can get.

Finally, not exactly a new discovery but someone I have neglected to read more often: Thomas, who as his domain name tokyotom.com suggests, lives in Sendai. A much more diligent poster than I, he has some interesting insights into long-term life in Japan and well worth following.

PS Anyone know what's happened to Tokyo Cowgirl?