Kitchen

Similarly to Asleep, Kitchen is a novel divided into two short stories. It also deals with the themes of death and coming to terms with it, but also another added thing. Since this was the 80's I'd be inclined to say transvestites? instead of transwomen, or even men in dresses but mainly how someone, usually the female main character, perceives them. The first story intrigued me, and the way the trans character was handled. In fact, both the trans and the cross dressing character do so as a way to cope with a major trauma in their life. Eriko was a man, but he became a woman once his wife died and he was left alone to care for his son. In a way he replaced her. Could it be because to be a single father is different from a single mother? Maybe he viewed men as incapable of providing motherly nurture to their children, it's an interesting idea. I do not think fathers are incapable of that in theory, but many men do have and become fathers like that. He is truly an amazing person though. From an outsiders perspective, I noticed Japans view on gender, gender change etc. is a bit different from the West. But this is just my personal limited experience of course. In media I see them talk about okama more, which would be more of an effeminate gay man that may or may not cross dress and it's also an offensive term to some. I also noticed they're big fans of non binary shit, but I have no doubts that it's because of extreme gender roles their society enforces so it does not surprise me. By creating another binary though, one cannot escape gender roles, in my humble opinion. In the second story there is a cross dresser character, who was described as weird, and a free spirit. After the death of his brother and girlfriend, he starts wearing his girlfriends uniform to school. People are shocked but ultimately sympathetic. Men wearing dresses, and generally being gender non conforming is one thing they have a harder time with compared to women. That is of course, because being a man is seen as the default. Women's world is seen as something that one doesn't need to dabble into, so when a man does so, he is seen as weak. It can also be a sign of sexual deviancy, and many people dont really feel comfortable with that in public... Either way, both stories were really somber, cute, and even inspiring at some points.