Three Generations to Greatness

"It's one generation from a pickaxe to a putter. And the next generation from a tuxedo to a tramp." - Will Rogers

A while back, I wrote a blog post about motivating children and that reminded me of what is considered the ways to greatness for classical pianists. It is called, Three Generations to Greatness. It is what the classical music world considers the minimum for a pianist to be in order to become truly great. Basically; it takes three generations of family effort and diligence to create one piano child prodigy. 

I thought that this story might be useful to those of us who sometimes wonder why they are on this earth and what their purpose is.

I say this because, I, too, sometimes wonder what the legacy is that I will leave on this planet after I die. I have begun to have these thoughts because of the recent death of my own father. Of course, I loved my mother and father and miss them so... But what was their legacy?

Take my father for example, his legacy is much different than my mother's because things changed greatly for our family after my mom's death. Our family fell apart. What does that make my dad's legacy?

A former marine. Three sons who do not speak to each other. Some very old photos of his mom and family and a marine dress uniform that he left to me to care for as he said he wasn't sure that my brothers would do so properly.

Is that all? I'm sure that's all. Unfortunately. And, when you stop to think about it, in the overall picture of things, that's just about all for 99.99999999999% of all the world's people.

In 2003, I started writing for blogs. In 2005, I wrote my first and only book. Why did I write these books? Well, I wanted to leave a legacy... Something to be remembered by. I want to write another book soon too. Oh, and I want to do oil painting again...

Alas...

I look at the old and tattered photos that my father gave me of his dear mother. Is this her legacy?

The other day, I went to meet a friend named Kieruto Duits who runs a business called "Old Photos of Japan." There Kieruto takes old photos of the people and places of old Japan and lovingly immortalizes them for future use. This seems a wonderful way to leave a legacy. Guys like Kieruto, I know, will take care of my old photos of my mother taken before the war. I am going to give mine to him. I am also going to give him some important family photos of Japanese soldiers before WWII.

But I digress...

Most of us haven't an very old photos or we haven't written a book (my book is terrible and a waste!) neither do most of us paint like Picasso or sing like the Beatles nor compose like Mozart....

But! Aha! There is a key there! Mozart! Music!... Maybe our legacy is not in and of ourselves, perhaps our legacy is in our children! The title of this post is "Three Generations to Greatness." It is true. "Three Generations to Greatness" is what is said it takes, in the world of classical music, for a child to become a great pianist.

Let me explain how, what you do today, can lead to greatness someday using the example of "Three Generations to Greatness." First off, more detail as to what exactly is the three generations.

Here's the story: It is said that it requires three generations of effort and parenting to build a piano genius. The typical story goes like this:

Grandfather works hard as a day laborer. He struggles and saves. He builds a good business. He doesn't want his children to struggle and suffer as he did. He wants them to become doctors or lawyers. He wants them to study culture and art. He makes the children take piano lessons. He works hard and sends them to good universities. 

The children never become good pianists. Why? Because, after lessons, when they are home, there is no one to play and practice with. After all, we all know that you become proficient or great when you practice and hone your craft with someone who knows that craft.

Later, the children grow up. They become doctors or lawyers. They want their children to have the same or better. They want their children (the grandchildren) to study culture and art. They make the children take piano lessons. They work hard to send their children to good universities. 

Same as grandfather, right? Wrong. Now, these grandchildren, when they come home from piano practice (once a week for one hour) they have someone who knows how to play and practice. They have someone at home whom they can enjoy the piano with.

If that someone is their mother and she is working at home, then these children have a massive head-start on others who have no one to practice or play with.

This is why, say traditional musicians, such as American country or Jazz musicians, are thought to be so great: They start practicing with grandpa when they were little kids. That's why they are so proficient and such awesome musicians when they are 25-years-old! 

The moral of the story? Even though what you do now may not seem, at first, to be any sort of creation of a legacy, remember that what you teach your children, they will teach theirs. 

Treat your children with respect. Learn what motivates them. Help them flourish and bloom. Create your legacy.

Tokyo in 1979, 1984 and Today

(This article is being rerun for Michael McThrow and all the other Michael McThrows out there...)

All my life I've thought that having a diary was a good thing. I never started writing one because I was; a) way too lazy. And, b) Never really thought what was going on was worth writing about...

Actually, that last part is not exactly true... I thought it was interesting enough, it's just that I was always too drunk/high or fatalistic and figured that I'd die before I finished the book about my life's story... So why bother? I wouldn't get the royalties for the movie rights anyway. 

I reckon that makes sense in a twisted sort of way.

One guy, though, that seems to have been keeping a diary for all these years is my friend Andrew Joseph. He writes a blog called, "It's a Wonderful Rife." "Wonderful Rife" is all about his escapades as an English teacher in Japan in the early 1990's. Sometimes he has some really steamy stories that are quite full of ribaldry and sex. One such story is a recent posting about a hot babe named Junko. I think Andrew is in that story too somewhere, but I can't remember...

Read more about Junko and her other "friends" at

It's a Wonderful Rife

Ahem... 

Well, as you can guess... I've never written a diary. That's why, sometimes, I use this blog for one. Recently, Andrew's postings have inspired me to tell a short story about what Tokyo was like when I first came to Japan in 1979... Then, in 1984, when I moved here for good.

Today, in 2011, Tokyo is full of foreigners. Foreigners are not unusual at all in today's Japan (excepting way out in the countryside I hear). But it wasn't that way not that long ago. It used to be that foreigners were like movie stars in Japan merely by the fact that they were foreigners. I know. I was here when that was the case.

I first came to Japan in December of 1979. I was a Southern California boy and a university student. The Socialists who were running the government in the California at the time had something they called, "Affirmative Action." What that meant was that they thought they could use your tax money to even things out for others. If the population of your town was, say, 50% Hispanic, or some other minority, then they did some social engineering and required that all schools, government positions, and scholarships had to be divvied up amongst the Hispanics and whites 50/50.

At that time, I was a half-Japanese American guy at university. Having a Japanese mom and American dad put me in the classification as a "Pacific Islander" (nonsense, sure, but I didn't make the laws). Most of the Japanese American kids I knew studied stuff like becoming a lawyer or doctor. I was studying television. I would find out later that, at my entire university, I was the only "Pacific Islander" studying television (those were the days way before Tricia Toyota and Connie Chung, and all these other beautiful Asian American women you see so often on TV nowadays). 

Since I was the only "Pacific Islander" and I had very good grades, that set me up for a scholarship... Are you sitting down?... That was in 1979 and the government of California gave me over $7,800 to go to university! It wasn't a loan. They just gave it to me!!! Can you believe it? I couldn't either.

Of course, I didn't waste that money on school or books or stuff like that! I wanted to use it to have fun! I found out how to go around the system (It's the government after all! Of course they were all messed up!) and I got the check cashed and immediately went and spent a large part of it on taking a one month vacation to Japan.

I stayed at some friend's house in Chiba but, most of the time, I stayed at my girlfriend's house in Kawasaki. I didn't have much of a clue as to what was going on the entire time I was in Japan because, even though I was half-Japanese, I was too stupid to bother learning any of the language before I got here. After all, the second language of the Japanese people is English right?... Wrong!

One day, my friend in Chiba decided to take me to a prostitution parlor... Er, I mean, a massage parlor, er, I mean a "health parlor" called, "Soapland." He  brought me inside and I sat in a waiting room. It soon became apparent to me what kind of establishment that place was and I got very frightened! I know! I know! I am a wimp, but I was only 19 at the time and had never, ever paid for sex and wasn't about to then.

I'm not that kind of guy!  

Yes. She could frighten me out of my pants!

Like an idiot, I ran out of the Soapland and into the "pink" area of town and was completely and totally lost. Like I said, I couldn't speak any Japanese so I was walking around trying to get someone to help me find my way back to where ever it was I was going to....

In Japanese, the word "lost" can be said a few ways. There is "makeru" which means like, "I lost the game" and there is "mayou" which means like "I am lost and can't find my way" (as well as a few others). I opened my Berlitz dictionary and looked up "lost." There I choose the first definition which was "makeru." Which means, "I lost (the game)"....

But, "Makeru" can also mean "discount" too! So here I was walking around the pink area of town and all these yakuza looking types were trying to get me to go into their parlors for some paid sex and I was looking for someone to help me get back to my friend's place. I kept mistakenly saying, "Makeru!" (I'm lost!) and they took that to mean, "Give me a discount!" They all smiled and nodded and welcomed me into their places.

I couldn't figure out why they didn't understand that I needed help. They probably couldn't understand why, when I asked for a discount, and they said, "Yes!" yet I kept walking on. Finally, after wandering around totally lost for over 2 hours, through a stroke of blind luck, I found a police box and the police helped me to find my way back. 

I knew that I had better not take a chance and get lost like that ever again!

A few days later, my same friends took me to Shibuya to drop me off so my girlfriend could pick me up and take me to stay for the remainder of my trip at her home. What a relief that was! At least her English was pretty good.

I was taken to a very famous landmark in Shibuya. It is known by all Tokyoites and visitors to Tokyo as 109 department store. It still stands today as an extremely well-known landmark and meeting place. When I was taken there to meet my girlfriend, 109 had just finished construction and it was the pride of Shibuya.

My friend dropped me off and told me to stand in front of 109 department store, but I was early by an hour or so. Even with that, I was quite leery of going off and adventuring by myself because of the recent experience in Chiba so I thought I'd better stay put and wait for my girlfriend.

So that's when it happened. And that's the first amazing part of this story. I told you that there were no foreigners here at all. There weren't. While I stood there waiting for my girlfriend, all sorts of people were walking by me and pointing and staring. Some people said, "Hi!" I said, "Hi!" back.

After about 10 minutes of waiting an extremely beautiful girl walked up to me and said in very good English, "Why don't you come and have a coffee or tea with me?" I thought, "WTF? I didn't know this girl. What was going on here?" Even though she was a babe, I declined because my girlfriend was a babe too and, after coffee, what was I going to do? Where would I stay?

I know what you are thinking: "Duh! This Rogers guy is a real moron!" And, yes, I would agree with you.

Well, I said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the beautiful girl and just thought, "Wow! What an awesome babe!"

But it wasn't just that girl. After her, three different extremely gorgeous women walked up to me and, in very good English, basically asked me the same thing! The last two really blew my mind. One said,

"Oh, I'm sorry. She's not coming, you know. Why don't you just come along with me?"

The last one was even more brash and said, 

"She called me up and told me that she can't make it, so she wanted me to take you to dinner." 

I thought, "You know my girlfriend? Are you sure? Wait a minute!" 

Finally, not being the sharpest tool in the shed, it dawned on me what was going on. These girls were actually trying to pick up on me. I couldn't believe it!  In all the years I had lived in the USA not once did a girl ever ask me out for a date excepting Shanda Shinkaruk, my very first date which was a Sadie Hawkins "Backwards dance" when I was in ninth grade. Now, here I was in Japan, standing on the street corner and, all within an hour, four different girls... NO! Four different extremely awesome sexy Japanese girls who you'd die for were trying to pick me up!

It was like I'd died and gone to heaven!

"What a wonderful country Japan is!" I thought. "I want to live here!"

That was 1979. You may think I am totally stupid, but, my girlfriend, by the way, was a famous model at that time and was on the cover of magazines... That's why I thought twice about dumping her for these hussy women... Today? Absolutely not! I wouldn't think about it for 1/2 a second before I'd be massaging their toes and cooking dinner for them every night!

Anyway... Between 1979 and 1984, I came to Japan many times and, each time, I never wanted to return to the USA... Finally, in 1984 or so, I got fed up with the USA and my job and decided to move around the world. I wrote about that in Working With Thieves Liars and Crooks. But the first place I wanted to live was, of course, Japan.  

In 1984 foreigners were still rare in Japan - and popular with the women, and that led to my first divorce as I was unable to control my hormones.

I still feel sorry for my ex-wife and kids about that. Forgive me. The How to Survive Women Blog has an excellent article about that entitled: Cheated on - Now What? 

But I digress.

By 1984, when I moved to Japan, I had taken several courses in Japanese language at my university and was one of the top students in class (it didn't hurt that there were many Japanese exchange student women living in the dorms with which I could, er, "exchange" lessons with.)

I landed a job with an English school in Shinjuku, then Iidabashi. Since I could speak some Japanese, I was the liaison between the Japanese staff (managers) and the few foreigners on roster. 

Those, my friends, were the glory days of English teaching in Japan.

Yen to dollar rate from 1985 to 1989. From 1985 to 1989, the US dollar lost 1/2 its value against the Japanese yen. English teachers were being paid $50,000 a year - or more - working part time teaching English!

In those days, since I was in management, I know, there were English teachers at our company getting paid, I'd say, on average, ¥700,000 per month. Some were earning over ¥1,000,000 per month. ¥700,000 per month, in 1985, was "only" about $2,756 per month in USD. By 1989, that was about $5,512 per month... And that was for 20 hours a week of classroom time!

Think about that! English teachers were so rare in those days that they were earning, on average, more than $60,000 a year in 1989. People who couldn't get a job mowing lawns back home were pulling down $60 thusand dollars a year teaching part time and sleeping with their students! Since I was a measly liaison, I was only making $80,000 a year to babysit those dumb foreigners (maybe not so dumb, eh?) I even knew a few guys who were making twice that amount.

Like I said, those were the Golden Days of English teaching in Japan. No matter how much I warned other foreigners around me, people played and spent like the gravy train would never end. So don't tell me that teaching English in Japan is a crap job, I remember when it was an awesome job!

Like I said, English speaking people were a rarity and we were always short of them. My old boss, Mr. Hasegawa, and I would go to Shinjuku station and hang around looking for foreigners to teach classes for that evening. We were desperate! If the foreigner was walking and breathing, then they qualified for a teaching job.

We even hired white guys with the names of Ewvig and Euwie (from Austria and South Africa) and told them to say their names were Eric and Ernie, just to save, er, "confusion"... Oh, and don't forget to say that you are from "Canada" or "Nevada"... That's to "explain the accent."

I remember a guy named Arya who, during class, wowed the students with some great phrases like, "Someone explain me this!" or "How to someone say that?" Seriously, he really did say things like that. I cringed...

But it didn't matter...

Those were the days. Us foreigners were rare and oft sought after. We got paid gross amounts of money. Even if we were the dorkiest jerks in town, we got the hottest girls... And why? Not because of our training or education, but just because of our looks, even if they weren't good. Just because we didn't look Japanese. We had the place in the top of society just because of who our parents were and where we were born. Pure and simple and stupid blind luck.

Today, being a foreigner in Japan is no big deal... In fact, in many circles, it is now a detriment... It used to have style and pizzazz! Not anymore.

There is no real moral to this story excepting that I can say that Japan, up until the mid-nineteen nineties was pure men's heaven... I thank god to have been able to have lived through that, in the right place, and at the right time.

Seriously, she was one of my students... Well, at least several girls who look exactly like her were.

NOTE: Later on, I'm going to have to write about when I was a teacher at a girl's high school... Now THAT was a dangerous job. There were at least 9 awesome girls in my class. Or the time I was teaching another class and a girl that easily scored a 10+ wanted to talk to me after class and she started unbuckling my belt while we were discussing her score... Of course, I gave her a 100... Both jobs I quit immediately... Like I said, they were way too dangerous.

My Personal Blog Surpasses 2 Million Page Views - Thank You!

Thank you so very much to Lew Rockwell, Gary North, Koji Kamibayashi and the rest (you know who you are!)...

Also a great "Thank you!" (and I'd like to say that I am humbled by your support) to my readers.

God bless.

Get a Top-Quality Professional Logo for Yourself or Your Company for $200 (USD)

People who read this blog often (thank you) will know that I am a member of many online communities. I do that because it is a good place to see what people are writing about SNS, Social Media, and Social Media Marketing (SMM). It is also a good place to see what the old school people are doing to try to make themselves look as if they are up on the Internet and the new media.

Guess how much this logo cost? A total of $200 (USD) Incredible? Read on.

It is pretty easy to pick the people out who are still stuck in the old ways at these "Marketing Online Professionals" communities. They write things like,

For this reason , I am convinced that SM works ONLY when being integrated inside a marketing plan, together with media placement, PR, promo, direct marketing and CRM. 

It is painfully obvious that the guy who wrote this is an old-school advertising guy posing as an "Internet and Social Media" expert. He laments the fact that his Social Media Marketing (SMM) plans fail consistently. He is trying to convince us - but more likely he is trying to convince himself - that the old way is vital.

In some ways he's right. The old media is vital if my product is targeted to to the 45 ~ 70-year-old crowd or if my product or service is for everyone in the family from the smallest kids to grandpa and grandma (think Disneyland, etc.) But when your product /service is for the under 40 crowd, I think you'd have to consider long and hard about spending a cent on old media... In many cases you would not be doing your client any favors to recommend spending huge budgets on TV or radio. I wrote about that in detail here and here.

Earlier today, I went to a different online professionals community and was so surprised to find people saying things like "First things, first! You must hire a professional to do your company logo!"

Of course a good logo is a must... But coughing up a few thousand dollars to hire a professional? And this advice coming from a community that calls itself, "Online Professionals"? Hmmm... Why would the people who are supposedly sold on online business be pushing the old-school ways?

Perhaps hiring a big-bucks professional will be necessary down the line, but I think us Internet types should try to use our creativity and brains before we just throw money at the problem like people used to do....

As I suspected many times, these online communities are often places where old-school advertising agents try to gain credibility as "Internet" and "online experts"... But they actually don't really do either (always ask any self-proclaimed "Internet" and "Social Media Marketer" for a list of their blog URL's and Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, U-Stream, Mixi (in Japan), etc, accounts. That's an easy way to pick out the frauds).

Click here and read at bottom for tips on how to pick out the poseurs.

I know many a small to medium business owner who has hired a professional and spent a few thousand dollars only to wind up with a handful of designs and they didn't like any of them. Foolish especially considering the fact that new businesses must watch out for every single penny and paper clip!

Well, now my friends, there is a solution! It is a company called Logomyway.

Logomyway is a new service that started in April 2009. At Logomyway you make a logo design contest and get 1,000's of artists to compete for your business... You pay nothing excepting to the winning submission. The cost can be as low as $200 (USD). You decide the winner's prize fee.

My company, "Universal Vision" logo... $200! Excellent!

Hiring a professional designer right off the bat is old school. It is also the easy way to do things for salaried employees who have no problem spending the company money... They wouldn't recommend this is it were out of their pocket. The people people who were so quick to recommend throwing away $1,000 ~ $2,000 were from an online professionals group! I'm surprised that anyone would suggest the old way without investigating the new and exciting things going on online. Try Logomyway.

http://www.logomyway.com/

I have no investment nor business relationship with Logomyway whatsoever but have used it twice  and recommended to three other people who have used it. Everyone has been more than thrilled with the results... One friend was so happy because the professional that he had hired before - and paid well - gave him designs that weren't that good... He was worried that he was going to be out another $1,000 when I introduced him to Logomyway... The result? He spent $200 and got a killer logo.

And, if you don't like any of the logos... You don't pay!

All hail the Internet!!!!

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Keywords:
Logo, Logomyway, SNS, Social Media, SMM, old media, Japan, Mixi, Internet, Facebook, Twitter, blog, online professionals, Marketing Online Professionals, YouTube, Online Marketing, Universal Vision, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, U-Stream, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, 

Write Down Your Goals to Achieve Them!...

"Life is difficult as it is so let us be good to each other." - C.S. Lewis

Today, I'd like to take a moment to highly recommend a book that has helped me greatly since the first time I read it and that is Brian Tracy's Goals!

I write down my top 10 goals everyday! Inspired by the author of Goals! Brian Tracy (I also recommend another Tracy book, Focal Point)

In Goals! Tracy talks about how, if you are to succeed in life that you need to write down your goals in order to be able to achieve them. "Sure!" Everyone thinks this but I know few who actually do write them down. Trust that writing them down does help your sub-conscious to actually remember and activate your  brain to achieve the goals you set forth for yourself.

I write down my goals everyday in the morning when I wake up and, not only does doing so help me to achieve them, it also helps me to relax and stay much more focused. Who doesn't want to stay more focused in this day and age when our "in-box" includes, for most people, several e-mails accounts that are constantly filling up as the day goes by and consistently altering our priorities? Or an Internet world filled with Social Media like Facebook, Mixi (in Japan) and Linkedin accounts (among others) to attend? Twitter and Pick, are no longer for just sending messages to your friends, but they too, have been co-opted into the business world and your boss orders you to use them, or blogs and SNS, to get the company message out...

How in the world can anyone get ahead of the pile in the "in-box"?

The book promises that you will "Get everything you want, faster than you ever dreamed." Sounds like grandiose claims but let me point out that writing down your goals and purposes is like having a sort of road map to where you want to go. When you write them down, they enter your subconsciousness, they cause your inner brain to focus upon the Law of Attraction. If you do not write down where you want to go - if you do not have a map - then how will you know where you are going?

The publishers write:

Why do some people achieve all their goals while others simply dream of having a better life? Bestselling author Brian Tracy shows that the path from frustration to fulfillment has already been discovered. Hundreds of thousands--even millions--of men and women have started with nothing and achieved great success. Here Tracy presents the essential principles you need to know to make your dreams come true.

Tracy presents a simple, powerful, and effective system for setting and achieving goals--a method that has been used by more than one million people to achieve extraordinary things. In this revised and expanded second edition he has added three new chapters addressing areas in which goals can be most rewarding but also the toughest to set and keep: finances, family, and health.

Using the twenty-one strategies Tracy outlines, you'll be able to accomplish any goals you set for yourself--no matter how big. You'll discover how to determine your own strengths, what you truly value in life, and what you really want to accomplish in the years ahead. Tracy shows how to build your self-esteem and self-confidence, approach every problem or obstacle effectively, overcome difficulties, respond to challenges, and continue forward toward your goals, no matter what happens. Most importantly, you'll learn a system for achievement that you will use for the rest of your life.

One of my goals are to become a multi-millionaire. Laughable? Maybe. But at least I have a road map and I am consciously working on that everyday... 

And I really do have proof! I have evidence that Tracy's philosophy and ideas in Goals! work.  I have shown myself that actually writing down goals are critical to achieving them. And my proof stands in something that, for me, is much more important than the Rat Race and making money: it's being the best dad I can be. 

It used to be my #1 priority was, "To make $15,000 a month..." then, one day, when I got a flash of irritation at something my son did - then thought about that flash later on - I realized that the most important thing for me was not money. By far the most important thing for me was to be a great dad. 

Now my #1 priority goal that I write everyday is; "I am a kind, loving and patient father and husband today and everyday" (with today's date added).

Folks, trust me. This really works! Since starting this habit, I have caught myself several times with a flash of irritation at my son - that  before would have caused me to get angry or upset and maybe raise my voice - but since I started writing down everyday my goal of  being patient and kind, my mind recalls that goal immediately and has killed that flash of anger instantly its tracks. 

Why ruin what could be a good learning opportunity and great memory with an out burst of irritability? What for? Life is too short to be getting upset at the small stuff all the time. 

As the great writer C.S. Lewis wrote in Chronicles of Narnia, "Life is difficult as it is so let us be good to each other."

Try reading Brian Tracy's Goals! Write down your goals everyday. You'll be glad you did. 

(This article was inspired by a meeting I had with a most interesting fellow named Roger Marshall. Thank you, Roger!) 


Also read: 

Pocket Notebooks: The Secret of Millionaires and People Won't Listen! 


One Easy Step To Becoming a Better Parent and More Successful at Life 

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keywords: Pick, C.S. Lewis, Twitter, SNS, e-mail, Goals!, Blogs, blogging, Youtube, U-stream, Brian Tracy, Narnia, Facebook, Mixi, Linkedin, Japan, SNS, Internet, business, Japanese, priority, Social Media

Never Post Vacation Pictures on Facebook or Anywhere Else on the Internet...

People like to post pictures of themselves while on vacation on Facebook or on the Internet... That has got to be one of the dumbest things you could possibly do.... Why? It's an invitation to unscrupulous people and thieves.


When you place photos of yourself on vacation on the Internet (Facebook or any other Social Media site or even on your own web page or blog) you are saying,


"I'm not home. No one is home. That makes my home an easy target for burglary. There's probably jewelry and credit cards laying around. Come and get it."


Think.

Here's a photo of us getting ready to eat shrimp at a shrimp farm in Hawaii... Two years ago!!!

Go back to the days before the Internet; when your family went on vacation, what did you do? (Choose one):


a) Leave some lights on in the house. Ask the neighbors to pick up your mail so it looks like someone is home. If you were gone for a longer period, you might ask the neighbors to go into your house, feed the fish, water the plants, turn on different lights in different parts of the house to give your house the look of "someone home."


b) Put a giant sign on top of the roof of your house that says, "We're on vacation!"


You did "a," right? Of course.


Now, in the Internet age, when hundreds of thousands of complete strangers can see what you post, why in the world would you broadcast that you are not home and your house will be empty for a few days, just ripe to be broken into and robbed?


That's completely lacking in common sense.


It doesn't really matter if you have an alarm system. The average burglar spends 8 to 12 minutes in your home before they are long gone.


Think your alarm system is going to stop that when they can just rip the unit from the wall and the security service (that is listed on the Internet) will voluntarily tell anyone how long it takes for them to react to an alarm (most cases 35 ~ 45 minutes)?


There's absolutely nothing wrong with posting vacation pictures on the Internet... But be smart... Is it wise to do that while on vacation or after you've returned?


You don't put a sign on your door when you are on vacation that says "Gone to Hawaii".... Don't put up one on the Internet.

Personal Blog Passes 1 Million Page Views in 1.6 Years

Thanks to everyone. Thank you so much!


By the time I post this article, this blog will have surpassed 1 million page views in 1.6 years. That's pretty awesome if I say so myself. That may not be the record but it must be pretty close for a guy who just started blogging with no fame or corporate backing to help him out. Thanks so much to everyone. I could never have done it without you all.

Major companies can get a million page views, they have status and name-value. But for a personal blog on a very niche subject like mine (Japan, marketing and media - and in English no less), that is an incredible number. I have asked a few Internet expert friends about it and they told me that it was "amazing." I like to think so.


When it comes to blogging about Japan in English, I would venture to guess that there may not be another 3 or 4 personal blogs in the entire world that have surpassed 1 million views! It is especially rare when you consider that I never blog at all about gadgetry or gaming. (I do know that there was a very excellent ramen one that I passed by one time that did have more than a million views and I've looked for it to show you, but couldn't find it.)


I like blogging. But there is frustration... Well, I should say that blogging, in and of itself, doesn't frustrate me that much but when I am asked for marketing advice (mostly buzz marketing of which blogging is an integral component), the frustration comes in when people (especially corporate types) - just don't seem to understand... They give lip service to blogging and her sister "Organic Marketing", but when push comes to shove, they just don't "get it." They invariably will go back to old ways and pay money to have their paid advertising show their company at the top of a Google search result...


Oh hopelessly lost souls!



You've really got to stop and wonder why in the year 2012, when the Internet is so integral to our lives and thing like, say, Facebook has over 750 users that most corporations have a Marketing section whereby not a single one of them blog... 44% of Japanese companies don't even use Social Media... And those that do, do it poorly... Alas...

These sorts make great bloggers.

Blogging is like being a mad scientist in a laboratory: You are basically on your own trying out different subjects, titles, word combinations, file namings for images, tags and keywords to see what gets good results. There really isn't any textbook for doing this. The closest thing is David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR but that's already nearly five years old! And, in the life of the Internet, five years is ancient history! (By the way, David Meerman Scott and I have corresponded and he greatly encouraged me to start this very blog!)


Here's some of the great things I've learned through blogging over this last year:


1) How to get #1 rankings on a Google search without paying any money


2) How to do the same for images that will lead to your website without paying any money


3) Credibility is very hard to get, it is nearly impossible to buy. Blogging and Organic Marketing are truly credible methods to get the message out.


4) Merely by blogging and experimenting, you will understand more than 98% of all people - even Internet engineers - how marketing works (or doesn't work) on the Internet.

Blogging is a study experience for me. I do this to learn new techinques. Things are always changing the only way to do it is to, well, do it. Like I said, this blog is like my laboratory and I am the mad scientist. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out how this all works... But, I must admit, one thing doesn't change: In Japan, sex and cute sell. 


It frustrates the beans out of me when I write something that I think is really good and intellectually fulfilling, yet it gets few reads; but when I write something with lots of photos of sexy Japanese girls, it will get thousands of reads... Er, maybe i should say, "views" from all over the world. 


But, even that is a learning experience because I know how to take the exact same content and get a few hundred views or get 100,000 views. There is a method to the madness!  


The things that make me happy the most about blogging is getting nice mail and intelligent comments, even if they disagree, and meeting new people. 


Blogging can be exhausting, but it can also be rewarding. Through writing, I think I help myself to become a better person as writing is excellent therapy for the soul. In that way, I suppose, it wouldn't have mattered if I had never even reached 100 readers.


As an old Zen Buddhist saying goes about charcoal ink painting: "The valuable thing is the moment of painting, not the the final picture."


Absolutely the same can be said about blogging.


My next goal is to hit 2 million page views in January 2013. Thank you so very much for your visiting this blog sometimes. I do sincerely appreciate your time and most kind consideration.

NOTE: Finally, please allow me to indulge myself in this self-congratulatory message and to thank my friends who helped me to get here: First off, my friend, Lew Rockwell, who gave me my very first break in blogging in 2004; Koji Kamibayashi "Nihon wo Genki ni Shitai;" My friend Mish Shedlock over at the Global Trend Economic Analysis Blog; Yuka Rogers "Official Blog," David Meerman Scott, Tim Williams,  Jimbo "Jimbo's Japan," Andrew Joseph "It's a Wonderful Rife," Ryu Oni "Monkeyman in Japan," and so many others (especially bloggers) who have come and gone over these last 20 months. Oh and I have to thank Seth Godin for his great books and the one he autographed for me!

Finally, to my friends and to those who are thinking about blogging; Most bloggers don't last more than 2 ~ 3 months. It gets frustrating. You write your heart out and then only three people read what you wrote. In the first two months of this blog, in my archives, I have many tips on how to get more page views, if you are thinking about blogging, or want to know how to get more views, perhaps you can find something useful there. I hope so.

Or, you can do it for yourself... That, my friends, is where, I think, you'll find the real rewards.

Once again, thank you to everyone!

Keywords: page views, buzz, organic, buzz marketing, 1 Million Page Views, therapy, 1,000,000, hits, reward, page views, Japan blog, amazing, incredible, marketing, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, personal blog, blog, blogging,   

Benefits of Blogging: I Made $400 Extra in Guam While on Vacation!

There are so many benefits of blogging that can profit you both spiritually as well as financially... But, as with many things in life, you've got to stick with it. 


Lord knows how many times I've wanted to quit writing for blogs. But, for better or worse, I've stuck with it. Now, I think if I quit, I'd wind up feeling like I lost a friend.

My blogging: The early years

Today, I want to give you an example of how blogging, for me, has done many great things for my well being (my maturity) and for my pocketbook. Besides making money, blogging has helped me to become a more patient and wiser person. I think blogging is a sort of therapy for the savage mind. It's worked wonders for me and it has made me money. Yes, folks. It's true: I have made lots of money with this particular blog you are reading right here and I allow no advertising on it. I'm not sure that it is possible to make any money from a blog that has pop-up ads, unless, of course, you get a few million readers a day. This blog has made me money because of what I write about and the wonderful people it has helped me to meet.  


I have been writing this Marketing Japan blog now for just over 1.5 years. In that short time, I have surpassed 850,000 reads (thank you!) At this rate, I expect to surpass 1 million reads by the third week of February or so. Besides this blog, I have also been writing blog posts for Lew Rockwell (LRC) since 2004. At Lew Rockwell, I am in the top 10 most published writers with almost 250 articles. Lew tells me that a popular article on LRC will get over 1.5 reads. In 2005, I had the #2 most read article on that blog. 


In this time, and over these nearly eight years, blogging has helped me to grow as a writer and as a person and has helped me to meet a great many wonderful people. It has also gained attention for me and my work, and has had the unintended consequence of having people ask me for advice or even getting me paid consultation work for their businesses. Many of those requests  (for advice) I rejected because I felt that I wasn't expert enough on the subject. In those cases, I introduced someone else who could help better than I.


But whether I do the job directly and get paid, or I help someone or help my friends, then there's enough reward in that for everyone.  


I'd estimate that, in 2009 ~ 2010, beginning with experience and information contained in this blog, I earned approximately $2000 a month in consultation and marketing and promotional fees.... I also got a consultation job for one friend and full time employment for another. Of course, in my case, I had to do a lot of work and go to many meetings and come up with marketing ideas, but that's not so bad for a part time job whereby I set the hours and come and go as I please.

Vacation in heaven? Guam! Yep. Only 3 hours by plane from Japan 

Besides the above, interestingly, I also "earned" $400 while I was on vacation in Guam the other day! Seriously! Pretty wild, eh? Well, here's what happened: 


At the end of December, I took my son, my wife and her parents and her sister to Guam for a family vacation. The in-laws are getting on in years and, as in-laws are wont to do, they keep saying that they want to go on "one last vacation together with the whole family before we die." (I think many people have relatives like this. They, like my in-laws, have been saying this sort of stuff for years... I wonder where we'll go for our "last vacation together" next year? Anyway...)


We went to stay at a very nice hotel in Guam (that I promised the hotel manager I would write about and I will soon). The hotel had connecting rooms and their own golf course. This is a great hotel and the rooms were large, clean, well-kept and a bargain at $200 dollars a night - don't forget that this was at Christmas time so prices that low at such a fine hotel are unbelievable! 

They even have Santa Claus in Guam

We choose this particular hotel because it was the in-laws wish was that they could go golfing together everyday. My wife and her sister would go shopping everyday and that left me to go play in the water park with my son. Get it? The parents golf, ladies shop, I babysit.... So much for "spending our last vacation together"! It was ok. I'd rather spend eight hours a day in the pool anyway because I don't like golfing and I really don't like shopping at boutiques.


We checked into the hotel and everyone went to their rooms. Our plan was to stay at this hotel for seven nights. Like I said, this vacation was paid for by me so everyone was my guest. Unbeknownst to me, the air conditioner in my in-laws room was broken. Since they are old people and I was paying for it, they didn't say anything about it at all. I didn't find out about the broken air conditioner until the forth morning at the hotel. I walked into their room and it was baking!


I asked my in laws why they didn't turn on the air conditioner and then they told me it didn't work. I checked it and sure enough, it was broken. I was a bit upset and asked them why they didn't tell me sooner. They said that they didn't want to complain and, if they did, they thought it would hurt my feelings.


Bless their hearts. I understand. They know I was paying for the vacation and they probably think I this hotel was the best I afford so they didn't want to make me feel bad about the accomodations. Old people are like that, I guess. Especially old Japanese folks who have rarely travelled outside of Japan; they don't know what to expect. I told them that I was going to complain to the manager about it and demand a room change and a discount. They told me not to complain. But I insisted that I had to. Heck, for all I know the hotel didn't know the cooler was broken.


From past experience, reading books (and experiences with this blog and dealing with comments and people) I have learned that getting angry is not a good negotiating tactic. I calmed myself and went down to the lobby to see the manager to make a business negotiation.


When I got there I met the manager. He was a very nice man named John. I explained the situation. John promised me that he'd look into it and switch the rooms immediately. I also asked for some satisfaction and a discount. He told me that he'd have to inquire to the sales division (understandable, this is a huge and famous hotel) so he'd get back to me later on.

View from our hotel room at Onward Beach Hotel. Fabulous!

When I met John again, he arranged the room transfer and, for that, I was happy. But, he said, that the sales department did not approve of a discount because we should have told them sooner. Yes, that's true. But I also explained to him about the in-laws and the "how's" and "what for's" and why they didn't tell me. They didn't tell me because they knew I was paying and probably thought that this was the best I could afford and if they complained, I'd feel bad. Fair enough, I figured. I can understand how older folks think. John agreed with me.


Even though he agreed, he said that it would be really tough to get the sales department to change their mind. We went back and forth a bit and I felt myself getting a bit hot under the collar.


That's when I pulled out my ace-in-the hole. I told John that I was a blogger and that I blogged for one of the most famous political and social commentary blogs in the world: Lew Rockwell and I also write this blog. I didn't have a business card, but, as I have written before in how to market yourself in Internet and Social Media? Get a Great Name, that having a great and easily memorable and unique name is critical.


I said to John,


"Listen John, I don't want to fight or hassle with you, but not getting even a bit of satisfaction in the form of a discount for the room isn't good enough. Now, when we reserved the room, we reserved a room with all the amenities and that includes an air conditioner that works. Please, I need more cooperation from you guys. You don't know who I am but I am a sort of well-known blogger. Please go to Google and search "Mike Tokyo." That's me at #1 or #2. I write for one of the most famous blogs in the world. Now, I don't want to write a bad review about this hotel. In fact, everything except this broken air conditioner has been just fine. And I'm not asking for something outrageous. Just some satisfaction. But if your sales doesn't want to make me happy, then you will lose a customer and I will write about this.... Because, well, because I am being forced to pay for something that wasn't as advertised and that's bad business. So please go back and ask again."


John said he understood. He looked me in the eye and shook my hand. With that, I walked off and we agreed to talk again the next morning.

The next morning, when I saw John, he smiled broadly at me. He told me that he was a big fan of Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell!!! He said he told the top director of the hotel about my case and they both agreed to cut the first four nights rate from $200 a night to $100 a night! I was so pleased. I was also so impressed that John was that kind of go-getter aim-to-please type of guy. He didn't have to go bat for me like that. But he did. He always has my business from now on. I like that sort of attitude.


What a diamond in the rough John is!


Actually, though, besides being happy, I was stunned. At first I thought John  meant that he was cutting $25 a night off the price, for a total of $100 and that would have been good enough for me, but they cut the price in half! $100 a night! Wow! That's $400 in my pocket right there! And all because I have a big mouth and I blog.

My wife was so happy too. Not only did we get a $400 discount, but they moved her parents into a bridal suite that was twice the size of the former room. Heck, the bathroom and shower in the bridal suite was the size of my dining room back home in Japan! When I saw the room, I thought, "Wow! This is really classy! These guys know how to treat customers!" What a wonderful place to take that someone special in your life for a honeymoon, anniversary, or just for vacation. 


I knew it! I blew it. I should have told my in-laws to take my room and we'd sacrifice by taking the bridal suite. Serves me right for not being more sneaky. Ahem!


Anyhow, the verdict is in for me: Blogging pays... Doing it consistently pays much better.

Onward Beach Resort, Guam. Highly recommended. http://www.onwardguam.com/hotel/en/

NOTE: The hotel we stayed in in Guam was the Onward Beach Resort. We have been to Guam now six times. We have stayed in the Nikko Hotel, the Hilton, Plaza Hotel and few others whose names escape me, but, for overall room quality, food, service and pleasant experience, Onward Beach Resort has been, by far, the best experience we've had in Guam. We will be staying there again next time.... If you go there, tell the manager, John, that I sent you. (Oh, and John, don't worry... I won't be asking for a discount again!)