[cut sifted ephedra sinica]

I was browsing around google and found a nifty internet trend site with google. So what else do i search but Japanese swords. Some reason it seems people have been loosing interest in them. Does anybody have any insight into this trend? Anime and manga are steady and very popular so it would seem that such a trend would go the opposite way...
heres the sight http://www.google.com/trends?q=japan...ate=all&sort=0
some other searches i did included japan, Japanese, kendo, anime, manga, kenjutsu, katana, and samurai. All had the same slight or major decline.
some insight?
Also just as a side note Chado(tee ceremony) seems to be a new trend discovered only last year.