December 14th, 2018

Throwback all the time

As you may have noticed (or maybe not–I wouldn’t blame you if not), Rose-coloured has encountered some interesting adventures lately. It was down, then it was up, then it was down again–and now obviously up again. Google was saying “this blog may be hacked” for a while, then not, comments were turned off on all posts briefly–plus six years of posts disappeared for a while. 

Almost everything is fixed now, mainly thanks to the know-how and patience of Stuart at Create Me This. Also thanks to the people at BlueHost, who now host this blog and hopefully will be nice to it, but it’s Stuart I’m grateful to.

Which is why I’m really trying not to bother him, at least for a few weeks. So when I realized a few more weeks of posts were missing than I initially reported, I really didn’t want to interrupt his life anymore. I thought about letting them go–it’s only about 6 weeks and certainly not everything I write on this blog is gold–but it’s sort of an important 6 weeks for me for a few reasons. But THEN I realized those posts still exist somewhere, on the old Blogger version of Rose-coloured. So I can just copy them over myself, one post every whenever I get around to it, until they are back living on the blog again, albeit somewhat out of order.

I’m not planning to recreate link posts, as the lost posts are from April/May 2009, and most of those links are now dead, and ditto posts about upcoming events that are now 9 years in the past (let us have a moment of mourning for how on top of things 2009 Rebecca was, though, eh?) But anything that could possibly be relevant to 2018 audiences (and maybe 2019, by the time I get done with this project), I’ll attempt to wrangle over here.

So without further ado, my post from Tuesday April 14, 2009
[ok, actually, some ado, for context–my brother moved to Tokyo in September 2008, and this post is part of a series I introduced in January 2009 about my preparations to go visit him. The main reason I want to save these posts is that they actually cover the trip, which was in May 2009.]

Planning for Tokyo

I have now read the first 50 pages of the Rough Guide: Tokyo (I have the version prior to the current one here, but you get the idea) and I have learned *much*! Thanks so to SKS for lending me the book!

First, the word of the week, which is “onna”=female. Not that I will have cause to say it aloud; I think if anyone is talking to me, my gender should be as apparent as it needs to be. But the guide tells me I’ll need to learn the written Japanese for my gender if I have hope of using the appropriate bathroom. Hence, my first kanji!

Other things I’ve learned:
–I want to ride in a boat designed by a cartoonist
–I will be in Tokyo for the portable shrine festival (Kanda Matsuri) and another festival (Sanja Matsuri) that also features portable shrines, but seems to focus more on an ancient tale of fishermen finding a statue. I’m sure I have this all wrong, but I’m looking forward to it.
–you have to take your shoes off indoors and put on slippers, which I am fine with and in fact always do at home, because I a) don’t like wearing shoes but b) get cold easily. However, even when you are indoors, you have to change out of your normal slippers and into toilet slippers when you go to the bathroom, and that seems *exactly* like the sort of thing I’d forget to do. Worrying. [Note from the future: Most of the above actually wound up happening in some form, but I never did encounter “toilet slippers.” Maybe that’s something in private homes–or the book made it up?]

More soon, I’m sure. 

I craved / I ate hearts
RR

Here are the original comments because why not:

7 comments:

Frederique said…

When do you leave? Will you be blogging from Tokyo?April 14, 2009 at 10:04 AM 

Kerry said…

I never learned to read anything during my 14 months in Japan, so I wouldn’t stress out too much if I were you. Also, everyone will expect you to do things, you being foreign, so don’t worry too much when/if it happens. You should also learn the word “sugoi!” which means cool/awesome/amazing and is used as an exuberant exclamation. Pronounced, “sa-goy!!!!!” (with at least five exclamation marks).April 14, 2009 at 10:14 AM 

Kerry said…

“Also every will expect you to do things WRONG”April 14, 2009 at 10:14 AM 

Kerry said…

Um, everyONE (I am tired. Obvious? Enough of this).April 14, 2009 at 10:15 AM 

Rebecca Rosenblum said…

I leave in a month–eek! I mean, yay! I mean…oh, my goodness, I have a lot to get done between now and then.

I don’t imagine I’ll have *much* blogging time in Japan, but I should be able to manage a few posts!April 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM 

Careygirl said…

Japan! Purrrr, such a wonderful place. How long are you going for, gaijin?April 14, 2009 at 3:01 PM 

Rebecca Rosenblum said…

Two whole weeks–long enough to get good and lost, and found again! Very excited!!