HTML Day Tokyo
writing HTML in 2026
… to those who celebrate. It’s on August 8th. Did you know???
This year I decided to celebrate it by attending an HTML Day event in Asakusa, Tokyo. Apparently there were about 40 participants last year, and this year there were 50 or 60 participants. How cool is it that people are gathering every year to write HTML together!!
The event is pretty straight-forward. The goal is to write a bit of HTML! The event organizer, Kitasenju Design, held a short lecture to explain the history of HTML and what HTML Energy is about, as well as an introductory HTML/Neocities session. After working for a couple hours, participants share their work.
I first heard of HTML Energy last year through some Instagram posts. I really resonated with their goals of making the web feel more alive and human, and to get people making things.
For the event, I made a pretty simple site - by dragging the slider handle, the page’s background color changes, and lines of colored text will become visible or invisible. Super simple, but it was nice to learn how Neocities works. It’s so easy! I think someday I’d like to make an interactive webpage point-and-click adventure game using this mechanic.
Some other folks designed some really creative, very beautiful sites. I think that all of the websites will be shared out on the HTML Day Tokyo site at some point. The 2025 archives are also available to view, so check it out sometime if you need to feel some HTML Energy…! Here’s the link to the HTML Day Tokyo Neocities page.
HTML is great! Basically everything else about web development terrifies me, but HTML is dead simple as a language. It really is incredible that you can basically write an entire functioning page in HTML without needing to look up reams of documentation. You don’t need to download and inject gigantic packages to get your page to work. The first ever website written in HTML in 1991 is still accessible, 35 years later!
I’ve only made webpages as a hobby and I would still call myself a beginner (and if you inspected my website code you’d surely be able to tell), but did you know that I first started writing HTML over 20 years ago???
Has anyone done a 25-minute long YouTube video essay about how Neopets spawned a wave of women in STEM yet, or do I have to be the first person to do it or what??
Anyway. For anyone who didn’t get to experience one of the greatest spaces on the Internet, basically Neopets was a website where kids take care of digital pets, play Flash games, and explore all sorts of fantastical worlds - all through the powers of the World Wide Web. And for any Neopet, you could view their details. From there, you can view their Petpage, which was essentially just a dedicated website for that Neopet. And this became my first experience coding in HTML and CSS!
I spent so many hours reading W3School tutorials to create silly little petpages for my Neopet characters. To no one’s surprise I had really cringe characters with outrageously emo backstories.
But, the real magic is, at the time I didn’t even consider my fully-coded webpages as programming. I didn’t know that it was something that people did as their fulltime job. I didn’t care at all about what the industry standards were. I was never self-conscious about others reading and reviewing my code. I was just an elementary school kid, trying to add a section for my Neopet’s likes and dislikes.
Life works in strange ways. Since then, I’ve entered adulthood, went from thinking I wasn’t cut out to be an engineer, to being in a position where I write code nearly every day for work or personal projects. And Neopets was at the start of it all! And I guess I also got really into using Twine, a web-based narrative game builder, to make a bunch of games in college. So, when I go back to HTML, I feel a bit like I’m returning to my sandbox. Just a space to muck around and try out whatever.
In an age where digital identities are being shaped by like four or five apps that are competing with each other on the same exact KPIs - I need everyone to make their own websites, now!!!
It’s not even necessarily about having a Cool Website to show off all of your Cool Accomplishments or Smart Thoughts or whatever… It’s just about having a space that is truly yours. Some tiny semblance of control.
One thing I appreciated about the HTML Day event was the gentle but firm persuasion to not use generative AI. It’s easy to see why people would be entranced with the idea of basically having a really smart guy writing code and fixing bugs for you… but in doing so, one misses out on the real juice! Writing the logic by hand, understanding how everything works, tweaking values to your liking… this is the stuff that gets you in the zone. If you’re constantly out of the zone and being distracted then it’s really hard to stick to your vision and the core of whatever you’re making.
Some people will even participate in HTML Day by writing code with a pen and paper. Damn… That’s fucking beautiful…
Last month I was working on a toxic yuri game, but then I wasn’t able to finish it. Oh well!!! I managed to play some of the games from the Toxic Yuri jam, though, and they’re really good.
- My Friend Snowy - God what the fuck. What the fuck. This one will stay with me for a while
- C•ko•fn•ta•C - Holy shit… holy shit… man
- Ten Metre Tide - This is actually from the previous year’s jam, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to the analog visuals. Such a unique story. Still hurts but in a less visceral way than the other two.
Also, this is not a toxic yuri game, but I played and finished Öoo which was sooo damn charming, and just a true masterclass of design. Good game design is the one that makes you yell at the top of your lungs and then feel like a freaking genius at the end of the level.
Since I forgot to write a blog post in July due to my various Afflictions, I’ll challenge myself to write another blog post before the month ends. See ya soon!