10 years of Arakawa Riverview

Goodness me this blog is 10 years old, who'd have thought...

Anyway it got me thinking the other day about stuff and time and whatnot and what has changed in the last 10 years, so...

• I now have a son
• I have bought property
• England have won a rugby world cup
• I've seen England win back-to-back Ashes
• London has hosted the Olympics in my lifetime
• I can sit on the sofa swiping this blog post on my tablet like I am now
• My folks have retired
• I no longer have 3 grandparents
• I  know about the Bugle
• I have slept at work because the transport system stopped due to a massive earthquake
• Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks are no longer hale and hearty
• I have run half-marathons
• I have walked/run around the Yamanote line
• Japan hasn't sunk into a financial and/or societal abyss even though everyone says it's going to happen "inevitably and soon"
• Tokyo has a 7s tournament again (and will host the 2019 world cup)
• I work at the British School not in an eikaiwa
• I can take my son to school everyday
• We've had an English winner of the Tour de France, step forward Bradley Wiggins
• The British and Irish Lions haven't won a test series, though hopefully that will change this summer
• I have become a permanent resident of Japan
• America has elected a black president, which shows they aren't completely stupid, but re-elected Bush Jnr, which shows they are
• I have become an uncle
• I have watched, horrified, as entire communities were wiped off the face of the earth by a tsunami live on TV
• I have become a British Embassy Tokyo warden
• I have been Principal of a major English language chain school in Japan and lived to tell the tale
• I helped to and then led the organisation of the Japan Scottish Highland Games
• A school cricket team had me as their coach for a whole year and still won a few matches
• Various cousins have got married and had children, which makes me a slightly removed uncle, I think
• I have earned an MBA with Distinction
• I've become a 40-something

I'm sure there is other stuff as well and so I'll probably add to this list as the days go by, but for the time being, happy 10th birthday Arakawa Riverview :)

Hike from Mt Takao to Mt Jinba

Mt Takao to Mt Jinba, a set on Flickr.

Totally Tandem

A quick shout-out to 2 friends who are very soon to be cycling from Vancouver to Chile rasing money for charity as they go.

Go Brendon & Emma, aka Bremma - hope you have super adventure!

You can follow their progress on their blog here:

Fuji trip

Fuji trip , a photo by tokyobogue on Flickr.

So in the last few months the number of views of this one of my photos on Flickr has gone through the virtual roof and is now my most viewed snap with 703 (and counting...).

I must admit I'm not really sure why. Initially there was a lot of traffic from tumblr and I think it was from a few sites there owned by thin, pale teenagers who like excessive eye make up and then they shared with their friends etc. It could still be them but now the tracking thing doesn't work so I can't see the referring site.

Anyway, it's a decent enough picture though I don't think it's one of my best and not really worth 700+ views, but there you go, what do I know?