• because they presumably have very long lead times, get notifications out to the major international guidebooks as soon as possible
• move on and do the same thing with travel-related magazines and websites
• back up these efforts by trying to identify freelance writers specializing in travel, and get information out to them too
• get our Print Party pamphlets into the racks at as many hotels, hostels, and other accommodations as possible
• ditto for Tourist Information offices
• all those items are focussed on the 'inbound' foreign tourists, but Asakusa is a very big destination for domestic travellers too, so start again at the top of the list, this time working in Japanese ...

I've written it down there as a kind of 'ordered list', but we're actually working back and forth on different parts of it together. We've got a quite nice English pamphlet ready, and Fujii-san (who is doing printing for us, and also acting as a bilingual Print Party Hostess) has begun trying to get them into hotels, beginning with those in our immediate vicinity. Some are receptive and some are not, but she'll keep at it until we start to see some results.

I myself worked on the top item on the list - trying to get information out to guidebook publishers, and found this to be quite a bit easier than I had expected. I began searching for physical addresses, expecting that I would be sending out printed information packages, but it turns out that most of the publishers have dedicated contact forms on their websites for business who would like to be featured in their publication. I spent a couple of days on this, creating a simple and clear description of our business, and sending it off to pretty much every guidebook publisher on the planet.

I'm a newbie in the travel business of course, so I'm not quite sure what to expect from this. Some of the publishers put information on their site making it clear that they will not communicate with us. They may - or may not - consider us, and they may - or may not - send a writer to check us out, but in either case, there isn't much we can do about it but wait and see what happens. I presume that visits would be unannounced (like professional restaurant reviewers), in order to ensure that the writers were getting the same experience as a member of the general public, and that suits me just fine. We're trying to give everybody a good experience, so what else could we do ...

So I was very surprised just a couple of days later to get an email from a lady letting me know that she was working on the Asakusa page of an upcoming edition of one of the biggest guidebooks in print, perhaps the most popular of them all. She was very enthusiastic about the information we had sent, was eager to come and try it for herself, and had a number of questions. I sent the additional information she requested, and said that we would of course make ourselves available for whatever other requests she might have.

At 63, I've kind of learned to stop 'counting chickens', but my resolve is being strongly tested by that communication from her. I'm walking around telling myself, "Dave; don't get excited! Not too excited, anyway. If this happens, it would have a stunning effect on our business ... but that's 'if'. So keep the champagne locked up!"

And in any case, the guidebook in question won't hit the bookshelves until the Autumn of 2015 (then staying in print for two years, before being replaced by the subsequent edition), so any benefits won't be immediately apparent. We're going to have to keep pushing at this.

We've also begun the 'other side' of the campaign, sending info to Japanese guidebook publishers, but the response has been ... umm ... different. I've got to get back to my Inbox just now though, so let's save that for next time ... :-)