Just a few days ago, I was pleasantly surprised when my friend sent me a Whatsapp:
Apparently one of her friends had shared my blog on his Facebook feed, helping to publicize this blog. More importantly, I'm glad that I'm making an impact to inspire others to write module reviews too (I just hope certain objective standards are upheld!)
Anyway, this may or may not have contributed to it (probably not), but I got a notification from Wordpress saying 'Your stats are booming!'. I went to check and this was what I saw
As you can see, there was a certain spike on Dec 24th. How big was this spike, you may ask. On average, I get 100-200 views a day (close to 100 uniques average). On 24th Dec, I got almost 1000 views (500 uniques)
What!?
Well the most logical explanation is that it was because results were released that day. I'm not sure why people are googling for module reviews when results just come out, but I guess some sort of relief/panic mode set in then. I foresee another spike when CORS opens.
ANYWAY. The whole point of this is to complain about something - seeing the fairly decent stats, I thought of monetizing this blog. So I went to check out several options... Nuffnang, Google. Guess what.
YOU CANT ADVERTISE ON WORDPRESS.
ARGH. SCREW YOU WORDPRESS.
Ok it's kinda silly I'm getting upset over this because I started out doing these reviews not for money anyway. But it's because of the 'success' of the blog that made me WANT to get money out of it. Success is bad! It makes you crave more. I have to learn to remember the intrinsic motivation I had when I first started doing this. Oh well. Anyway, I'm just doing one more semester of this.
It's a good learning lesson really. We have to remember why we started out doing something we enjoyed, and don't let our success get to our heads. Passion keeps us going forever. Money only lasts till it's spent.
My first meal in Japan. We arrived pretty late at our hotel, and we were really hungry so we just went downstairs to a nearby 7-11 and bought something. This wasn't cheap - 500 yen is like 6$. It was really salty, didn't really enjoy it.[/caption]
I don't know what possessed me to buy cup (or bowl) noodles for breakfast, but I did. It was way too much to finish, and way too salty. bleah.[/caption]
My sushi set and first proper meal in Japan. It was at the Onsen place in Odaiba. Was decent, though priced at around 1000 yen with no side dishes or anything.[/caption]
A ramen place near our hotel. I didn't really enjoy this because the restaurant was filled with smokers. Yes, smoking is allowed in restaurants in Japan. This was about 800 yen I think. Shrimp dumplings with charsiew and ramen[/caption]
Our meal at Disneyland for 600 yen. Was the most filling and cheapest thing available. Quite pathetic. Taste was ok. I enjoyed the meals at Anaheim's Disneyland better.[/caption]
Pretty good Tonkatsu Curry rice from Coco Curry House. 900 yen[/caption]
Another sad meal at Disneyland. Well, this was Disneysea. Naan with chicken curry lol. The naan was abit too thick, the curry was good though. 700 yen I think. Can't really remember.[/caption]
Next series of photos were from this random sushi place we chanced upon - we were walking around in Shibuya and just decided to enter this shop as Sushi was 105yen apiece. Turned out to be a pretty cool place, with automated ordering (You enter your order in the computer screen in front of you, then after a few minutes it zips out on a conveyor belt and stops in front of you)[/caption]
Tempura with sesame seed. Really good.[/caption]
Prawn with mayo[/caption]
Spicy Salmon[/caption]
One of the best chawanmushi I've had (200 yen). It had shredded prawn, shrimps, oyster. So much liao![/caption]
Takopachi octopus balls[/caption]
A random ramen place in Ameyoko Street in Harajuku. Tempura was super deep fried bleah too much batter. Udon was alright. Total cost about 800-900 yen.[/caption]
a really filling meal in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. Think was about 900-1000 yen. Ramen with gyoza and rice balls. Couldn't finish my noodles, was way too much. I liked this place as it was a really small restaurant with counter seats and you can look into the kitchen and see them cook. Oh, like many other places, you place your order via a vending machine outside, and you enter with a small chit of paper.[/caption]
Ichiran Ramen from Ueno Station (near the toilet in the shopping mall). Easily the best ramen I had the whole trip!
Waffles from a maid 'cafe' in Akihabara. It was more of a pub/bar than a cafe, and the maids were not pretty or cute. Boo. But there was no entry fee (the first cafe we went to had a 1000 yen entry fee) The waffles sucked. Soft and chewy and very eggy.[/caption]
Lemon lime Shoju (ordered by mistake, I didn't know it was an alcoholic drink), mushrooms, some eel, from a robatayaki place in Shimbashi called Musashi.
Pity this photo was blurred, it was my favourite dish at the robatayaki place. beans rolled with salmon. Really juicy and yummy thing.[/caption]
Crepe from Harajuku on the last day to satisfy the gf's craving. Was so cold and we were eating ice cream ><[/caption]
Sushi set for about 1000 yen in Hamamatsucho. Comes with chawanmushi and miso soup! Good stuff.[/caption]
Special Tonkatsu rice from Narita Airport, for about 1600 yen. Was really good though. I think the special just meant an additional egg and abit more sauce and pork cutlet. They also had free flow salad (that green shredded thing you see in the front). Very very filling. Good stuff![/caption]
Buffet breakfast at Kikusui Hotel! It was our final night hotel near Narita, as our flight was in the morning. Good food! Had 2-3 helpings.[/caption]
Our meal on the flight back. Yummeh~[/caption]