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Continuing what has become a really rather enjoyable routine, I shall once again be leaving Japan for the summer, returning home for five weeks to a land where the national football team is now worse than the nation’s infamous teeth.

However, that’s not to say that whilst I’m away Tokyo Times will stagnate like my country’s national sport, as the site will continue to be updated — just at a slightly slower pace that’s all; the current five posts a week being reduced to a much more manageable three.

And to be sure there is new content to see, subscribing to the Tokyo Times RSS feed could well be the way to go, although if such a system doesn’t suit you, the updates will more than likely be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

So, with that said, and my suitcase all packed, it’s just a case of hoping that little Abbey will get me to the airport before my aeroplane leaves.

Or even comes back again.

How it happened I have no idea, but happen it did, as last night I found out that Tokyo Times had been hacked, the only blessing being that it’s now no longer affecting the site’s appearance or usability in any way whatsoever. However, at the same time, it is still altering any resultant searches for the site, making it look like a very dodgy pharmacy indeed — the malevolent code greedily gorging on the Google ranking Tokyo Times has built up over the years and then regurgitating it to the unscrupulous bastards selling said pharmaceuticals.

Needless to say I’m currently doing my best to sort things out, although it’s not easy, so I’d definitely appreciate any advice should someone else have suffered the same (pharma) hack/attack.

But in the meantime, please bear with me whilst I try and sweep away the garbage.

Update: Thankfully, searches appear to be slowly returning to normal, so fingers crossed everything should be fine. And for anybody else who ends up suffering the same unpleasantness, this page will guide you through the necessary steps to get rid of any malicious code.

For an awfully long time now, Tokyo Times has suffered several comment-related issues that have meant ridiculously long refresh rates and sometimes even internal server errors, but the trouble is, whilst having little trouble with ludicrous alliteration, when it comes to website woes, my knowledge is not much more than negligible.

And yet that said, after a lot of terribly time consuming trial and error, along with a large amount of luck, those troubles have now been tackled, meaning comments now work wonderfully.

So well in fact that, when asked for a reference, this shy and retiring gentleman was pleasant enough to proclaim, “The comments really do work rather well. Way better than one has been used to.”

Although any claims of favouritism were quickly countered when he cruelly quipped, “Now if only you had any content worth commenting on old boy.”

From tomorrow, I shall be away from these fair isles for a month and be in the equally fair but not quite as full isles of home, allowing me the chance to catch up with family and friends whilst at the same time imbibing as much of the black stuff as my burgeoning belly can bear.

In the meantime, however, Tokyo Times will continue to be updated nigh on as often as it is now, although there will be much more emphasis on pictures rather than pitiful puns and laughable alliteration, which, it has to be said, is by no means a bad thing.

But to be totally sure there’ll be something new to see, there’s always the option of subscribing to the site’s RSS, which is full-feed and healthily ad-fat free.

As a change is by all accounts as good as a rest, then Tokyo Times should be relatively refreshed after this, its most recent redesign. A modification that one hopes will, at the very least, make it a little easier to read, although as I’m as fickle as Japanese fashion, it may not last seven days, let alone a season.

Still, after cajoling this burly bloke into a comment,

he very kindly belted out a brief, but at the same time still belly bulging, “banzai!”

Due to an upcoming month long sojourn back to the motherland, Tokyo Times will have something of a summer slowdown from this week. But, while I may be putting my feet up and lounging around a little, the site will continue to be updated — just not quite as regularly that’s all.

A change that means the usual five or six weekly posts will slow down to a somewhat more sedate and suitably summery four, which should be enough to keep things ticking along nicely.

Oh, and, should you have any complaints, I’m afraid to say you’ll have to answer to my PA, and you wouldn’t want a playful little pawing now would you?