おはようございます！

Ohayō gozaimasu - good morning!

It's Monday morning as I write this, and while I'm yet to dive into the pile of lesson planning that usually occupies my the bulk of my Mondays, I wanted to start this week by making an important announcement.

As you'll have seen from the title, things are changing when it comes to Ippo Ippo Japanese and social media.

Ever since starting Ippo Ippo back in January 2020, I've been an eager participant in platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, most recently joining Twitter - ironically right before it entered a huge nosedive courtesy of Elon Musk.

I don't think I need to convince anyone that social media wields a huge power when it comes to sharing updates and information, so naturally it's something I've put quite a bit of effort into over the past few years. As well as it being a space where I can share bits of my knowledge, social media has given me a lot back, in particular by offering me a way of getting to know other tutors as well as learners of Japanese.

So: why on earth am I talking about stopping it?

The answer is threefold:

1. It's starting to take up way too much of my time and energy
2. Being on social media for work makes it easier for me to slip back into using it more than is good for me outside of work hours
3. I think my time and energy can be better directed elsewhere

Rather than trying to keep up with constant changes in what each social media platform wants me to do to feed its algorithm, I've decided I'd like to take a step back and focus instead on something that's more within my control: the Ippo Ippo Japanese blog and newsletter.

If you're already a follower of both of these, this might feel like a slight anti-climax. However, my hope is that by reclaiming my focus from the demands of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, I'll be free to:

• Produce more (and better) blog content
• Work on creating an even more exciting (and more frequent!) newsletter

*I'll be sending all subscribers a heads up about this, as up till now my newsletter has only been sent once a month.

As things continue to develop, you may see me pop up elsewhere online (no spoilers just yet...), but for the time being, I'm leaving "social media" as I've come to think of it (Instagram/Facebook/Twitter) and will be leaving my accounts to go static. Rather than a stream of updates, they'll instead turn into placeholders to direct people to where all the good stuff is: here!