As the year 2009 comes to a close, following is a look at 5 of the best and 5 of the worst performing posts that this site has dished up this year. The popularity, or lack thereof, is based purely upon number of pageviews.

The Hits

Hello Titty Kitty

Seen in the storefront of a souvenir shop in Sydney, the image on the Hello Titty Kitty t-shirt is a double entendre of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty character. Posted in April 2009 and within a month it had received over 30,000 pageviews. It was StumbleUpon’s biggest referral to this site for 2009.

Japanese Upskirt Pussy

Google was most favourable to Japanese Upskirt Pussy in 2009. The post’s title is a wordplay on a photoshopped image that places the ceiling cat in a somewhat obscuring position. I can only imagine the Googler’s anticipation and sudden disappointment once arriving at this post.

Japanese Love Dolls – Taboo?

Japanese Love Dolls – Taboo? was a guest post by popular j-blogger gakuranman who explored Japan’s love doll industry and the social stigma surrounding it. Not including search engines and social networks, gakuranman.com was the biggest referrer to this site in 2009 for this article.

Top 5 Gadgets from Thanko

The Top 5 Gadgets from Thanko was a submission to the December 2009 Japan Blog Matsuri on Technology. It lists 5 weird and wacky USB gadgets from the Japanese company Thanko. It received over 3,000 hits on the first day that it was stumbled.

Tokyo Metro Manner Posters Recaptioned

Tokyo Metro Manner Posters Recaptioned was an effort to re-caption the Tokyo Metro ‘Manner Posters’ that describe the type of behaviour that is not tolerated on Tokyo’s subways. This years theme was “Please Do It”. You will notice a chikan (aka pervert) lurking in every one of them.

The Misses

Ōsaka Castle

The Ōsaka Castle was originally completed in 1583 built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi with the help of about 100,000 workers over a 3 year period. This post, garnering around 57 pageviews, was the result of a trip I made there earlier in the year.

Tsūtenkaku

Weighing in at 62 pageviews was Tsūtenkaku or the “Tower Reaching Heaven” in Osaka that stands at a total height of 103 metres. I visited this tower on the same trip as Ōsaka Castle. This tower is no Tokyo Tower and neither was this article it seems.

The Yokohamarama

The Yokohamarama was my coverage of the FIFA World Cup Qualifier match between Australia and Japan at the International Stadium Yokohama. It was a boring match and probably a boring review. It was posted in February 2009 and has only received 92 pageviews since then.

Ajista

Ajista only received 114 pageviews. This post covered Ajinomoto Stadium, affectionately known as Ajista, and contains a funny embedded video called ‘Husky Girls’, a humorous television commercial designed to make the stadium more appealing to Japanese women.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Present day Hiroshima is a bustling and vibrant city literally risen from the ashes. Unlike this post which is still lying in the ashes with only 122 pageviews. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park article covered some of the monuments and memorials found in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.