2008 Top Ten

In the grand tradition of year end top-ten lists, here's the top ten most clicked-on and linked posts of this blog for 2008. That's no matter when they were posted, by the way, and of course it doesn't count all the people that read posts directly on the front page. The list is tilted towards posts suitable for linking and forwarding, in other words, and posts that are easily found via Google and other search engines.

1. Handy Box (October 2008)
   The Handy Box, an old Swedish-made box camera, with my impressions and sample pictures.
   
   
2. Stirling Engline (May 2008)
   I show off a Stirling engine model I got and give a short overview of what a Stirling engine is, how they work and why they're just insanely cool.
   
   
3. Cup Noodle Museum (March 2008)
   A visit to the Nissin Cup Noodle museum in Osaka. See the history of Cup Ramen, eat a wide variety of instant noodles and make your own, personalized Cup Noodle. Fun place.
   
   
4. Voigtländer Bessa (October 2008)
   The Voigtländer Bessa is another old camera from the 1950's I've been using lately. This one was owned by my uncle, originally, and is still perfectly usable.
   
   
5. Osaka Population (April 2008)
   A look at population trends in Osaka prefecture. With illustrations!
   
   
6. Oyakodon Recipe (June 2008)
   A simple recipe for Oyakodon, posted while we were in Sweden and Finland on holiday.
   
   
7. Learn Japanese, Get a Visa (January 2008)
   Where I described an upcoming plan to make it easier to get a work visa for applicants with demonstrated Japanese ability. It seems the plans continue apace and may be reality around 2011 or so. The JLPT language test is already changing in preparation for this.
   
   
8. Clam Miso Soup (June 2008)
   A recipe for a very simple clam miso soup. Posted while traveling. Maybe I should post more recipes here.
   
   
9. Population Decline (November 2007)
   A look at reasons for the declining population of Japan. It's part two of a three-part post; Part 1 and Part 3 here.
   
   
10. JLPT 1 (December 2008)
    where I tell about my recent attempt and failure at the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 1. Nobody's perfect.
    

There it is: one vaguely sciency post, two posts on photography, three on Japanese society, three on food and one on language. Sounds about right for this blog.