I have decided to terminate this blog.
Two years ago, I considered closing the blog due to very low number of visitors. Fortunately, the trend has changed, as the annual "page views" exceeded 31,000, which was 3.2 times higher than back in 2023. While these figures do not mean how many people have actually visited the blog, and I am fully aware that they are still low, they encouraged me to post articles regularly. I have also received quite a few heartwarming messages, mainly via Mastodon, for which I am truly grateful.
However, it has become increasingly difficult to keep the blog running since last year. Google has been refusing to index Blogger pages, presumably due to technical issues. It has been widely reported that Blogger's mobile templates cause redirect errors in which Google effectively omits pages from the search results, and this blog is no exception. Most articles of this blog used to be indexed by Google, but they have disappeared. Despite nearly a year having passed since the problem emerged, there is no sign of improvement. I did my best to solve the issue with my extremely limited knowledge, but the blog still remains invisible on Google. I feel powerless against it, and although other search engines like Bing still covers this blog, I am gradually losing interest in keeping it active.
In addition, I have less time to do my hobbies than before, less time to take railway photos and less time to draft an article. Since I will soon move on to a new workplace, where far more tasks are expected, it will undoubtedly be harder to maintain the blog, or even to maintain interest in the railway itself.
For these reasons, I have concluded that it will no longer be able to maintain this blog. New articles will be uploaded on the second and fourth Saturdays each month until the end of this year. The provisional date for the final article is 27th December 2025, and the blog will remain open until the end of the financial year 2025 (i.e. 31st March 2026).
The Red List of Trains in Japan is not affected by this decision.
I regret having to make this decision, and I sincerely appreciate your understanding.
