Dispatch from Japan
I just got back from my first trip to Japan since moving out of the country 4 years ago. And the most interesting thing happened...
I just got back from my first trip to Japan since moving out of the country four years ago.
In the 18 months that I lived there, Tokyo became my second home.
A home that I didn’t realize I was looking for when I moved away from Seattle in the summer of 2016 after my divorce.
What made Japan home were the people. People who were expats like me struggling to figure out how to make living in Japan work. From the outside, it was glamorous (“You live in TOKYO! HOW COOL!”) but inside, it was torture.
Until I found my people.
Going back to Japan and Tokyo was like a homecoming.
I walked around my old neighborhood and went to bars that made Tokyo feel like home. I felt the memories of that year and a half float around me like a dream or a memory that was coming to life directly on top of the experience I was having being back.
I went to a café that is the setting of the next chapter that I’m working on. The chapter that I’ve been stuck on (kind of writer’s block, but kind of not). While I sat there, I expected the ghosts of that memory to come and haunt me. But it didn’t. I felt so detached and separated from it. Like I was watching the movie of my own life that I’m writing into this book play around me.
Almost like I was in the center of my own “behind the scenes” tour at Universal Studios for my book. Each time I went somewhere that’s a scene in my book felt this way – preserved in my mind because they’re preserved in my writing.
On my first night in Tokyo, I had a reunion with my best girlfriends from my time living in Tokyo. Some, like me, have since moved out of Japan and live in other parts of the world like Canada, the Middle East, and Europe. Others still live in Tokyo but haven’t come together in a few years since the pandemic shifted everything. We all met back up together.
During the first round of drinks, one of the girls started telling a story about one of our epic nights out.
I sat and listened to her carve out details that I didn’t remember. And smiled, thinking: Of course, I remember that night, I just finished the chapter about it in my book.
All my friends know that I’m writing a book and that a huge part of it centers on our nights out. All of our nights played out like a movie script. Down to the special, unexpected guests, pacing, climax, fall, and resolution where we all swear, no more tequila shots!
Or maybe that’s how I think about them from spending the past three years writing, revising, and editing them to be told in this way?
Of course, I remember what happened that night.
I kept listening. Trying not to be too obvious as I grabbed hold of the details from the night from her perspective. I felt I was watching this scene from a different camera angle, one that was tucked away in the bonus features.
I zoomed in, seeing how her version of the story overlays with the chapter I just sent to my editor to review.
My book came to life through the memories of my friends.
Even though no one has read my book, they all lived it.
We all lived some version of it together.
It was like no time had passed. Even though so much has in all of our lives and in the city itself. When we came together, it was like no time had passed.
There’s nothing that feels like home to me more than that.
3 Things
in the winter of 2021, I joined a year-long accountability group. My objective for joining was to use it to finish my manuscript and get published (I thought it’d only take 1 rewrite and 6 months. Hah!).
The group met twice a month. It was a transformative experience. I kept moving forward with my manuscript and also through a lot of personal barriers I had as I moved into identifying as a writer.
One of the goals of this newsletter is to keep moving forward with the publishing of my book (not just share stories about my travels, unless you’re into them? :))
So, each week, I will share three things I did to keep my manuscript moving forward toward publication. (The week is between newsletter publication dates.)
It sounds like a small thing. But saying “I’m working on” or “I did this” to someone who’s not my cat is very powerful.
Here’s what I did this week to move my manuscript forward:
I came back from holiday with 4 chapters in my inbox of developmental edits back from my editor. Getting back into writing after a holiday is HARD. To ease my way back into it, I’m starting there. So far, I’ve made my way through two of those chapters (they weren’t as scary as I thought they’d be). And once I
schedulesend this newsletter, I’ll start on the third chapter.I wrote and sent this newsletter (it counts! And only took 3 rewrites).
I attended a conference last week that is helping me put a “frame” around a business idea I have on how I can support the readers of my book.
What I’m Reading
The beauty about being jetlagged when I returned from Japan was that my body was 7 hours of Central European time zone (I’m used to it being the other way). This time, it looked like this: body collapsing and falling asleep between 8 pm and 10 pm for a week and waking up around 5 am.
This really confused Minnie, who spent my holiday in a sweet Swiss chalet in the city with no jetlag. But it worked for me.
I spent the entire first weekend that I was back in Switzerland reading. (Contrary to whatever you know about me, I’m a very slow reader).
I finished Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
Have you read it?
TL;DR: I highly recommend it.
First, don’t be afraid of its page count. For the size of the book, it’s a very quick, fast read. Min Jin Lee, the author, wrote the book in three parts and each chapter is short and easy to digest. The pages move fast.
The story begins in Korea in 1910 while Korea was under the imperial rule of Japan. Then, it follows generations of this family until 1989. It’s a beautiful story with characters that will stay with me long after (I have been finished with this book for a week and I still haven’t been able to start a new one).
What I love about this book was it was written from the perspective of a family of Koreans who were born and raised in Japan but will always be seen as outsiders. Yet, they have love and appreciation for the country that flat-out rejects them a lot of the time. I related to the parts where the characters were trying to find where they belonged. Because that reflected a lot of how I felt when I lived in Japan too.
It's a beautifully written book. One that is making me rethink how I want to write about Japan in my book too.
Plus, I started reading it before my holiday in Japan, during, and finished after. There were places in the book that took place where I traveled and even where I lived too. It gave another dimension to my trip, more than experiencing my own story.
I highly recommend this book.
Small ask: I’m on the hunt for my next book. Do you have any suggestions? I love books that pull you in, with lots of dialogue and characters that you miss when you close the book.
Have you read a book like this recently? If so, I’d love to know about it.
Hit reply to this newsletter or send me an old-fashioned email that says, “hey, Laura, read this…!”
Okay! I need to send this before I overthink and revise it for the umpteenth time. I have pages to get to!
Until next time,
xo,
Laura
I’m currently reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone en français. But I’m intrigued by your book!