Hey William!

About the name thing- don't give yourself a brain tumor overthinking it. Sometimes it just comes off as "tryhard". Kumokun is realllyyyyy cute though :) But the potential logo or brand would remind me of Pedobear? Plus, you remind me of a kid-bear with the shaggy brown hair and whatnot LOLLL. Aiighty, good luck with it all- we shall discuss in Legal ;) Oh, umeboshi makes me think of...japanese food/cuisine website not jap culture in general?

That was a long comment and full of really good advice from @gakuranman. Keep it fun and simple, 'moshimoshiumeboshi' is obviously too long, because it would leave only just over 100 characters and one link for thoughtful tweets. 'Ume' is kansai ben for 'umai', so it could become memorable as 'umeumeboshi' or turned on itself 'maiuboshi' which probably a little oblique for most people and would take a little explaining.

Oh yeah, the clean, fun and simple rule applies to blogging too. Don't get bogged down in the details and enjoy the conversation.

kumakumo for some reason I thought of a spider with shaved legs :o

Gakuranman makes excellent points which I agree with, but I'd like to throw some of our thoughts in too.

You could always mix up English and Japanese in your title. One of the titles that crossed my desk before we settled on the rather generic "Bite Sized Japan / ひとくちサイズ" was "KawaiiKitten". Okay, so we were going through a cute phase :P We decided to go "less cute" as the remit for our magazine is "Japanese Culture" rather than "anime and manga", so I guess it depends where your focus is and what sort of audience you want. A few things to keep in mind though (without wanting to state the obvious!):
Keep your name simple to remember and type.
If picking a name that could be easily misspelled, considering purchasing the missspelled name too (We bought all variations of BiteSizedJapan.com, Bite-sizedJapan.com etc etc).
Pick a name that can be abbreviated (for ourselves, BSJ).
If picking and English name, check the Japanese equivalent.
Make sure nobody else is using your name commercially already.

Good luck!

Hey Will,

Nice to see the evolution your site has been taking. The quality is going up and up - reminds me of myself starting out just over a year ago ^^. I originally used my own name before switching to Gakuranman.com. I had inspiration from the likes of Tofugu and Gimmeabreakman to create something fun and distinctive. And in my opinion, if there's one thing you need to be in the J-blogging arena, it's distinctive.

Anything with the word 'otaku', 'anime' or 'manga' doesn't get a second look from me (unless I'm looking for anime or manga, which isn't often). Also, anything standard like 'kimono' 'samurai' or 'geisha' is no good.

Think about what you intend to become. Do you want to be a 'lone blogger', so to speak? I decided I wanted to make a personal brand, hence why I focused on me (which can come across as stuck-up sometimes). I also wanted to distinguish myself an 'expert'. Although I'm far from one yet, I have created big shoes to fill in the future.

If you just want to have a bit of fun and not take yourself too seriously, you might consider a catchy phrase or wordplay. You've been going with umeboshi and perapera so far, which are not bad, but still lack something. Choosing a name is one of the hardest things to do, and it will stick with you forever, especially if/when you become big. You are making the right decision to do things now while you are still relatively new to the arena.

I can't think of any immediate names for you, but my advice is to brainstorm all the words and things you like about japan. Look at other big blogs - some people use their real names, perhaps that is for you? I decided to stop that for various reasons, mainly involving privacy and better branding.

Also, don't try to be too creative. Of course, this makes things harder, as all the simple words are taken, but have you considered domain names like: umeboshi.me ? I still think my name is too long; 6-8 characters is about right, but I had litle choice with what I wanted to go for - Gakuran on its own wouldn't work as I'd be thought of as a clothing shop. Which brings me to another point - be careful of the words you use.

Search engines index keywords, so if you want your blog to be highly listed for the keyword 'japan', it will help a lot to have 'japan' in your url somewhere. Of course, there are many, many other factors, and the shortage of japan names means it's probably not feasible.

Try to think about the readability too. Perapera is good because it has a repetitive word that is easy to remember, but are people who know nothing about Japan going to know what it is? Might they not read it is Pe-rap era? Of course, the same could be said about my domain name - just points to consider. Also beware of dangerous combinations: ume + doku (poison plum) might sound cool, but it means syphilis in Japanese...

My thoughts are just streaming out right now, so I'll interrupt with one idea that came to mind:

Umaiboshi = umai + umeboshi

Means delicious umeboshi (umai means delicious in casual Japanese)

Or perhaps: umaiume

I don't know - just ideas ^^;

Hmm... How about:

umehoshi

Which doubles up as two possible senarios: ume + hoshi (star - all sorts of star + plum logo combinations spring to mind)

Or ume + hoshi (with an extra 'i' in real Japanese - meaning 'I want ume')

Okay, I'm spent - good luck with it!

Thanks for taking the time to write that essay :D I don't really know how I could play with umeboshi as a logo, I like how it sounds but Japanese food I think I should stay away from, people normally think it's about Japanese cuisine, also the logo's would most definitely have to be red, but I like the color blue a lot more. Because you used so much creativity I thought I would try some brainstorming and jot them down here.

kumakumo = bear spider? I just like how it sounds and I always got those words mixed up but I would have no idea how to extend on that theme.

kumokun = Bear kid? It's not that I like bears that much, it's just the sound of k and m I like? weird? plus it's short.

koajira = I recently watched Godzilla, and I found that "gojira" is a mix of "gorira" (gorilla) and "kujira" (whale), so I mixed the word "koala" one of Australia's beloved animals with "Gojira" to create, "koajira".

panjira = the same with "koajira" but with a panda, cause I actually like them (they're more racoon than bears!)

Wow, everything's animals related, I guess I still have time to think about it, I hope the name will just come to me in an epiphany. I guess I could also just make a Japanese sounding word like "tofugu" or is that actually something in Japanese?

Tofugu is a cross between tofu and fugu. I kinda like your kumakumo and kumokun (the former more than the latter) Has a really nice ring to it - but it'd not just about the name. Consider your logo and colours too. Personally, while I like the sound of it, I think you should pick something that represents you or the image you wish to promote. If you use kumakumo and have nothing to do with bears, spiders or clouds in your logo, it might be a little odd.

Keep brainstorming though, and browse the web for inspiration!

That's pretty good, I like it. ^^;

haha! good one :D

LOL I didn't mean hack in that sense. I meant easy to rework the code for your layout. Basically everything you need is in one file, and its super-easy for you to play with until you get it looking the way you want.

Not for me :P

Don't buy a theme! They are very easy to hack together. If you need help, just ask. I actually like the current name for your blog.

I don't see the reason for people to hack my blog and also it's just that personally I want to change my name, but thanks for that! :D

I’d say go with “umeboshi”. The only problem is that I won’t be able to spell it, but if it’s already in my RSS reader, I guess I don’t need to. I kinda like your theme the way it is right now. I know you feel though, I’m never happy with my theme either. By the way, apricots are extremely good for you. Make sure you eat the seed in it too. It has a lot of great vitamins to fight off cancer cells.

Some great facts about apricots :P, thanks for empathising with the constant need to change and the websites "umeboshi" is taken in all forms :P

ok, i am not very good at these games but i'll have a go anyways. how about www.sukoshiumeboshi.com? :-)

Thanks! but why what's the meaning behind sukoshi umeboshi? like "a bit umeboshi" or "a little umeboshi"??

well, i tried to disclaim the lameness of my poor attempt. yurushite kudasai.
the driver behind suggestion was primarily the fact that it rhymes.
so, that's a start, now what does it mean?
hmmm... 'a little bit of umeboshi'? ^_^

that's pretty cute :D but in saying that in Japanese ALOT of adjectives end with "shi", but because you both commented and RT'd you are awesome! have you ever tried umeboshi?

i have indeed. very sour. i'm a big fan of umeshu tho.

What's umeshu? something I should try out?

legal drinking age in oz is 18, so i can't publicly endorse it. :-)

NOOOOOOOOO, not Thesis. Just not only thesis. Go and check woothemes.com, they have loadsa damn sexy themes.

I'm also against Thesis... it's way too impersonal.

But thesis is so easy! I have no idea about html and css so having something like Thesis makes editing super easy!

Well... I don't know about easy. I mean, I know html and css and trust me, I know it good. And I know my way around Wordpress. But when I tried to write a new function for Jonas (yonasu.com), I felt like a retard, didn't understand a thing what the shit that thesis was doing.

And why do you need to do any coding if you're already buying a theme? I mean, you buy it according to your liking, so it should be already like you want it to be. And hell, there are always people not minding lending a helping hand. Phew, that was a long comment.

Actually, I did find 1 WooTheme that I liked, it's used in in tofugu and edufire's blog http://www.woothemes.com/2008/12/busy-bee/

It's just that I want to be able to change my blog whenever I feel like it, but not have to know anything :P