Books in Translation: Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami (Japan)

Translated by David Boyd and Sam Bett

Once I committed to read at least one translated book a month in 2020 (and hopefully the rest of my life), I then had the fun task of researching which books I want to read next. I requested and got approved for many 2020 releases from NetGalley, so I'm excited to share my reviews with you all. Hopefully Books in Translation becomes a series here on Vitae Victoria!

Breasts and Eggs follows two sisters and the elder sister's daughter. The present day timelines takes place in Tokyo, whereas flashbacks of the sisters growing up take you back to Osaka.

I started reading this book when I was in Osaka for the first time, in Japan for the first time, and I'm so glad I did. Little details in this book opened my eyes to details I would've missed while traveling. Hostess bars, cultural mindsets, and struggles of a socioeconomic group that I never would've come into contact with as a tourist.

I definitely enjoyed the second half of the book over the first. Both halves of the book deal with interesting themes of motherhood and growing up, but the second half explores the complicated process of choosing single motherhood and in-vitro fertilization. The main character reminds me a bit of the protagonist in Convenience Store Woman, another popular book from Japan, because they're both a little different and decide to live their lives on their own terms, despite what society thinks. (Aside from that the books are very different, please don't compare these books further, they're both great in their own way!)

I look forward to reading more of Kawakami and hope more of her works are translated into English soon!

Links to buy:
Bookshop.org
Fountain Bookstore
Indiebound
also check your local library!

Kissing Oscar Wilde's Tomb

Instead of going with my friends to the Louvre, I decided to take a long, long walk in the Paris springtime to the Pére Lachaise Cemetery to meet some famous dead people and do some tomb kissing. 

shaded walk in the maze-like cemetery

It's a cheeky thing to do, kissing the grave of a dead person, but I think Wilde would have loved it.

Photo credit

Look how beautiful it is! Sadly, removing the lipstick and graffiti slowly wears away at the stone, so in 2011 they erected a glass barrier to keep the smoochers off. Although it doesn't feel as fun or romantic, people still kiss the glass to keep the tradition alive.

My reflection with a lipstick mark. It's been exactly 3 years since I took this photo so I can't remember if the lips are mine or not. 

I arrived at the cemetery a little too close to closing time so I wasn't able to see all of the people I wanted to visit. (Gertrude Stein is hard to find.) If you go, go early because the cemetery is HUGE and beautiful. I recommend taking a book and some snacks so you have plenty of energy to interact with all the spirits of great artists around you. 

I Was Wrong About Paris

I copied the poem "Paris in the Rain" by Alysia Harris into my journal with some ticket stubs. You should watch her performance of the poem, it's amazing.

Many people will disagree but this is a hill I'm willing to die on: France is the America of Europe. There, I said it. If you're French you'll probably be annoyed by that comparison but don't take it personally; I don't take it personally when people shit on America. It's fine, you'll live.

Anyways, the French are the Americans are Europe. (These are all generalizations I AM AWARE. No country is just one thing.) They think they're the best, they probably don't like foreigners messing up their nice stroll in the park to stop and take a picture, if you're in France you BETTER speak French or you're uneducated scum. Do any of these attitudes ring familiar?

I am aware that Americans have a bad reputation abroad, especially in France so I expected them to have the same animosity towards me. And many people were rude to me! I won't go into specifics but I promise you I was trying to be my normal polite self, using as much French as I could when required. But I didn't give a shit about how rude the native French people were because Paris was just too damn beautiful!

(Jk I will go into specifics about a funny incident. I was walking and passed by a cute dog so I said hello to the dog like usual, and the dogs owner called me a "stupid American" in French! Like damn, I just want to greet your dog. I hope that dog is doing okay with their bitter owner.)

Just look at this building!

Look at this place! Someone with a better memory than me will know what this cathedral is called, but all I know is that it's beautiful (and older than my country).

The Catacombs! We waited in line forever to get inside (underneath?) and it was 100% worth it. Definitely pay extra for the audio tour so you can actually learn stuff instead of looking at piles of skulls the whole time.

Hello sir!

I hadn't seen Moulin Rouge at this point (was forced to watch it later that summer in Slovakia) but I followed along with my friends. I took a picture of them in front of it and accidentally stepped on a grate, blowing up my dress for everyone to see, Marilyn Monroe style but less graceful. 

I ended up enjoying my time to the fullest, eating a baguette and drinking very cheap champagne in front of this great beauty. 

Alone in London

Everyone Welcome

Aside from the places I've lived, London is my Most Visited City. On my most recent visit I was only supposed to have a short layover but the airline I was booked on went BANKRUPT, if you can believe it. The universe gave me a few more days in Europe and I was grateful to experience London in the fall for the first time. I stayed on the couch of a friend I met briefly the previous June in Slovakia and hung out with another friend that I met in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July. Life has a way of working itself out. 

London also happens to be the first place I wandered around on my own. 

can you BELIEVE

I bought tickets for the Harry Potter play a year and a half before it came out, when I wasn't even sure if I was studying abroad in Britain. The tickets went so quickly and I knew this was my only chance to buy them, so I figured I'd cough up the ticket refund fee if I couldn't go. 

cheap nosebleed seats but it was still amazing

The plot sucked but the production level was amazing. I'm sure anything on West End is fantastic simply because of the money and effort put into each performance.

I do love London. I wish the food and cafes were cheaper, but aside from that it's a great city for someone on a budget. SO many museums, £5 standing tickets at the Globe Theatre, and bus fare maxes out at £4.50 so it's way cheaper than taking the underground. On a sunny day I spent a lot of time on a bench in this park near the Thames, just because I could and it was free. 

 

Have you been to London? I feel like people have pretty polarizing feelings about it, so do you hate it or love it?

3rd Times the Charm (Scotland Edition)

first time seeing Edinburgh Castle

I have been to Scotland three times in my life. The first time when I was 18 and a senior in high school. We took a picture with a big rock at the Scottish/English border then went to Edinburgh for one night and I took a picture with that little dog statue.

sunset over the University of Glasgow

The second time I was 21, a junior in college, and on any given day I swung from mildy depressed yet functional to couldn't-get-out-of-bed severely depressed. The daylight situation during winter in Scotland is NOT an enriching environment for those who have a fickle relationship with serotonin. The sun rose around 9am and sank again a little after 3pm and I learned that I can never go that far north during the winter ever again. It's soul crushing. It was hard to make close friends and the friendships that I did have were fickle (and I just realized I used fickle twice in one paragraph but don't feel like changing it- that's how being 21 is: fickle fickle fickle). It was a blur of a semester and I was happy for it to end so I could be free to roam Europe how I pleased.

the station was so tiny I had to wave the train down or it wouldn't stop here

The third time I was 22 and almost three months into my post-college eastern Europe trip. I made a "detour" to Scotland to meet up with two close friends that I made in Slovakia the summer before. We rented a car and drove around the North Coast 500 and hiked to bothys, abandoned sheepherder cabins that are communally upkept by those who visit. I then spent a week with different friends in their cozy house in the Highlands, doing nothing but drinking, reading, and relaxing after three months of hostels.

I like Scotland more and more each time I go, and have gone further north each time too. But Scotland isn't the one that's changed over my visits, it's me. The more I love myself the more capacity I have for loving other places. It's a good thing to realize.

stuck in quarantine thoughts // the waiting game

As every 20-something is wont to do, I spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to do with my life. As of this time last year I had a loose plan that I was satisfied with: teach in Korea for a second year, travel around southeast Asia for a bit, do a working visa in Australia and/or New Zealand. Pretty much figure things out as I go, but always having an idea of my "next" step.

But then we found out my uncle has a brain tumor, one that has a 14-month life expectancy from diagnosis, and I knew I had to come home. No more teaching, no more Korea, no more travels. Obviously being home is emotionally and financially exhausting, especially with all of this corona business, but I know it's where I need to be right now. When people ask how long I plan on staying home, I tell them I plan to go back to Korea in August or September. It gives me something to look forward to and it makes others feel more comfortable if I have a plan.

But if we're being real here, I probably won't be going back to Korea this fall. Others are more hopeful about my uncle's recovery, but from where I'm standing it looks like it'll be a slow and steady decline, and I'll be needed even more then. Of course I hope God is real and he's in the mood to work some miracles, but nothing is for certain and I can't be signing any year long contracts anytime soon.

spending time mainly in bed or on the front porch

Now let's move on to a lighter, more relatable topic: what the hell should I do with my life?

For a couple days in self-isolation I was seriously considering becoming a teacher. I would love to teach English literature and I love working with kids, but I also know that the burnout rate for that job is so high. Plus, I would have to stay in the US awhile to become a licensed teacher, and I don't want to do that for a job that I'm not sure about doing long-term.

Being a travel blogger sounds cool, but I know I don't have the self-motivation or the ego for that. I want to talk about my FEELINGS, not boring stuff like "How to Spend 24 Hours in Busan". Anything that would be described as "content" is mindnumbingly boring to actually write. Also, I feel like a huge dumbass every time I post on here. The only thing more embarrassing than having a blog is having a blog that no one reads.

I love reading, but who's going to pay me to read all day?

I thought about the Peace Corps, but the thought of spending two years of my twenties in a super isolated community for a resume booster in a field I'm not even sure I want to pursue is probably not the best idea. Plus, with these family health issues I don't think I can be away for 27 months with no simple way of coming back.

I want to write novels, but I know that that isn't a stable or guaranteed job, so that needs to be something I do on the side. I'm close to finishing Draft 1 of a promising story, so hopefully I finish that during this sedentary time.

I don't want to go to grad school anytime soon. The thought of spending all that money and two years in one place makes me physically recoil.

trying to take cute photos on my first weekend in Jinju, March 2019

Things I DO know for sure: I want to keep traveling and living in different countries. I don't want to start a career anytime soon, because that would impede on my flexibility to travel. I want to write, but I don't have enough life experiences yet. Or I do, but I know I need to live way more life.

So what WILL I do with all my time in quarantine and while I'm home for the foreseeable future? I'm going to read a lot and try to finish writing a draft of this novel. I also realized I haven't really written about my ACTUAL travels, so maybe I'll go through my photos and post little snippets, quit bitching on this blog and actually post about travel. Yeah, I'll do that.