Google logos for Japan

I’m sure that you know that the search engine Google often customizes their logo for special holidays and events.

But, unless you use Google Japan, you most likely see different custom logos than I do.

Here are the customized Google logos than were featured so far this year in Japan:

「成人の日」 ("Adults Day") ... 2011 January 10

100th birthday of Okamoto Taro, 2010 Feb 26
(click image to read my post about him)

「ひな祭」 ("Girls Day")... 2011 March 3rd

「七夕」 ("Star Festival") ... 2011 July 7th
(Click the image to read my post with last year's image for this holiday)

「海の日」 ("Sea Day") ... 2011 July 18

Click here to see my FAQ about all of Japan’s holidays that I wrote on my “main” website.

Have you seen any interesting Google customized logos for your country’s holidays?

Pet contest

I like animals a lot (but not as much the the famous animal expert “Mutsugorou-sensei” 😉 ).
We have a cute pet turtle and we’ve had a cat, rabbit and a bird in the past…and every summer we have a few カブト虫 (Japanese Rhino Beetles).

We also like to visit the many zoos in the Tokyo area and also look at the cute animals in pet shops.

I found on the Yahoo! Japan the 「Yahoo!ペット・コンテスト」 (“Yahoo! Japan Pet Contest”).

On this site people can upload cute photos of their pet and visitors to the site vote on the best ones.

Currently this cat is in first place on the Yahoo Japan Pet Contest.

This one's in Second Place now.

Third Place.

Of course, not all of the pets are cats. There are also cute photos of people’s dogs, hamsters and rabbits. I even saw a pig and a ハリネズミ (hedgehog) while I was browsing through the photos.

Here are few more pictures that I liked:

 

Do you like animals too? Do you have a pet?

If you want to look at the 「Yahoo!ペット・コンテスト」 (“Yahoo! Japan Pet Contest”) then click here.

Japan meets India meets Mexico

Today is 「七夕」 (“Tanabata“).

(Click here to read my short FAQ about this holiday.)

「七夕」 (“Tanabata“) is on the seventh day of the seventh month (July 7) and the name literally translates to “Seventh evening”, but the English translation of the holiday’s name is “Star Festival“.

On this holiday, people in Japan write a wish for the future on a piece of paper and tie it to a bamboo tree.

Today both Yahoo Japan and Google Japan incorporated a 「七夕」 (“Tanabata“) design into their logos.

"Google Japan" Tanabata logo

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The Japanese fast-food chain “MOS Burger” is currently offering a 「ナン・タコス」 (“Indian Nan-bread Taco”) and 「ナン・チョリソカレー」 (“Indian Nan-Bread with Mexican Choziro-sausage and Curry”).

Each for ¥360.

October 1609 and 1969

Did you know that the internet started this week forty years ago (in 1969 October)?

It was much simpler then than it is now and it was only used by the U.S. military as a way for computers to “talk” to each other.
Supposedly the first message sent between two computers via the internet was “L-O-G”…and it crashed at “O”!

Do you remember what Yahoo! looked like when it first started in 1996?

Here’s a screen-shot of an early Yahoo! page from thirteen years ago:

What "Yahoo!" looked like when it first started in '96.

Also, four hundred years ago today in 1609 October, the Italian scientist Galileo invented the first telescope.

It was nothing compared to today’s telescopes, but it helped Galileo discover that the sun and other planets don’t revolve around the Earth (which was the common belief at the time).

When he published his findings, the Catholic Church dubbed him a heretic and demanded that he recant lest he tried in court for heresy!

100,000 hits

I started this blog eighteen months ago, and last night my blog reached 100,000 hits!

The first month I started this blog (2008 March), it got only about 20 hits a day…but the number steadily climbed.

These days my blog gets between 700 – 850 hits a day. At that rate, it’ll get another 100,000 by next January.

My blog's monthly stats for 2008 March - 2009 August

Sometimes I’m surprised by the search engine terms that people have used to find my blog.

Such as:

• IKEA logo (I have a post about IKEA in Japan. And their logo is on the page. Click here).
• McDonalds logo (It’s on this post).
• Gene Simmons (He’s the bassist in the rock band KISS. I have a number of KISS-related posts. This post shows his photo and a video of him performing a song written exclusively for a Japanese movie).
• Detroit Metal City (This is the Japanese movie that Gene Simmons cameos in).
• Death Note (I have this post).
• Rock And Roll Over (I did two interviews with the artist of that KISS album cover. Here and here).
• Godzilla (Maybe this post will interest you).
• Octopus (I have a post about octopi with too many legs. It’s here).
• John Lennon shot (I wrote a post about it on the 28th anniversary of that tragedy).

How did you find my blog? With a search engine? What were you searching when you found it? Did you find, on my blog, what you were looking for?

And, if you have a blog, what search engine terms do people use to commonly find your blog?