Do you sumo on your blog?

A friend sent me a clipping from Newsweek yesterday – I am still in mild shock….

In this ‘letter from Tokyo’, the writer equates Sumo wrestling with blogging. (I did read till the end but I failed to get the connection but that is not the point of this post – actually there is some connection but I’ll leave it to you to figure it out)…

This letter is all about Japanese obsession with page views – Many of us spend more time wondering how to improve our blogs’ rankings than writing them… The author has several helpful tips in boosting your site meter, starting from having a friend visit your page at regular intervals during the day – you, of course return the favour.

You scratch my back, I only smile contentedly. But you visit my blog, I will visit yours in return…

She also says a rather perplexing thing – For us Japanese, the bigger the better, whether it’s wrestling or the Web. Now you know why Sumo and blogging.

I have the greatest regard for the Japanese – all things they make are smaller and better (but the Chinese are cheaper, but that is another story)

But the really startling statement is yet to come – Blogging is supposed to be an intimate thing: mostly highly personal forums for friends and people with shared interests to express themselves and their world views.

Please tell me this is not true. Is there anyone out there who can assure me that blogging in Japan has evolved as much as it has in the rest of the world – and it is not a ‘friends guide to what I did (and ate and wore) today. I know it is your blog and you have the right to write what you wish on it and so on… Iam guilty of pesonal posts from time to time… but is that all a blog is about?

I remember Jon Stock’s take on personal blogs in The Week…. Most of them might be about as exciting to look at as your neighbour’s holiday snaps…