We Are Back Blogging

Recently, I decided to dust off the old blog and continue writing.

Before getting up and running, I think that a why-did-you-stop-writing-and-why-are-you-starting-again type post is in order.  So here goes.

When we first started writing here, the concept was that it would be a travelog of our Japan adventure.  I'd always been a journal-keeper on big trips.  This seemed to qualify.  Also, we thought that it would be an easy way to keep in touch from the other side of the world.  Instead of remembering to share pictures and send emails to our family and friends back home, we could simply put them up on the Blog.  (It was like a structured Facebook before I joined Facebook.)

A few unexpected things then happened:

• It was REALLY fun to write.  Life in Japan was a terrific adventure for the whole family.  Everything - even the mundane - was new and exciting.

• Also, we realized we had readers.  Not just mom and dad.  Imagine our surprise when we realized that people besides our parents, family, and closest friends were reading.  Hello co-workers. Hello random people from Australia.  Hello ex-pats moving to Kobe who happened to find us.  (This worked out beautifully.  Among the people I consider my closest and best friends in the world are those we met through this blog.  Cosmic kizmet.)

As we have written previously, back in mid-2009 coming back was a difficult adjustment.  Life seemed well...routine in many ways.  Living in NJ suburbs, going on a trip to Costco - was that really blog-worthy?  The answer seemed to be no.  Not feeling it, we closed up shop.

It also seemed right to close that ex-pat chapter, and with it to close the blog.  Any anyway, when you turn something into a hard-cover coffee table book (highly recommend Blog2Print; they did an awesome job), that gives the distinct feeling of a closed chapter.

...But lately, I've started to get the itch again.  Sure, a trip to the super market may not get the adrenaline newness meter up as much as it did in Japan, but its unfair and actually incorrect that life is not interesting.  And that there are not worthwhile reflections and explorations.  There are.

So, yeah.  We're back in business.  If you're still out there reading....