While anyone can theoretically travel or live anywhere else, there are types of people I wouldn’t expect to see in certain countries. For instance, a Somali in Ecuador or a Nepalese in Estonia. In Brazil, one might be slightly confused to learn of the great-great grandchildren of Confederate soldiers in the city of Americana (São Paulo), to hear Hunsrückisch (a Western German dialect) in Rio Grande do Sul, or to see Japanese people speaking fluent Portuguese. While all three examples are worthy of further study, I’m going to take a look at the last on the list.

The glaring fact that pops out when it comes to the Nipo-brasileiros (Japanese-Brazilians) is that they make up the largest grouping of Japanese people outside of Japan. There are an estimated 1.5 million Japanese-Brazilians here, with over 80% of them residing in the state of São Paulo. Other states they were attracted to upon arrival were Paraná, Rio de Janeiro and Pará (as an aside, I lived near the Japanese community there).

The city of São Paulo itself has it’s own traditional neighborhood called Liberdade where one can find Japanese influences at every glance. These days, the neighborhood is mostly about Asian-oriented commerce but back before the turn of the 20th century, Liberdade was called the Sul da Sé District and it held a working-class population of Portuguese and Italian immigrants. As the Europeans began to move to other areas of the city, the Japanese immigrants started to move in.

And move in, they did. Due to the quantity of houses that held basements there, living “underground” meant lower rent. The living quarters were sufficient enough to house groups, thereby bringing the rent per person down even further. It was from there that the Japanese population got their foothold in a foreign land and culture.

Without their influence, Brazilians might not have been introduced to a variety of things so soon. Things like jiu-jitsu, better fishing and planting techniques, strawberries and caquis, and the sakerinha (caipirinha, but with sake…which I now want to try!).

Here’s a few other interesting tid-bits.

• According to linguists, the word “Japan” is a corruption of “Cipan” and most likely comes from the pronunciation given by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century.
• For Japanese-Brazilian offspring, each generation (up to 4) has it’s own denomination. Issei is 1st generation, nissei is 2nd, sansei is 3rd and yonsei is 4th. The inside joke is that nemsei (nem sei = I don’t even know) pertains to any generation thereafter.

A few years ago, 100 years of official Japanese immigration was celebrated. Here’s a report on the festivities.

I’m a self-confessed technology nerd and an Apple hipster (I liked them and used their products 15 years before they were “cool”). When I came to Rio, I brought my Macbook Air with me and that’s it. It was working great until I started my journey here and the sound stopped working, the battery lost its “juice” and it began to shutdown on its own. The random shutdowns were fixed by three benjamins (converters), one on top of the other, and a healthy use of tape. Since I work from my computer, my current problems have me searching for a replacement. I’m hoping an iPad 2 will do the trick but how do I go about getting one here?

Back in California, I had played with the iPad at the Apple store and didn’t think much of it. I type quite a bit and the virtual keyboard just didn’t sit right with me. Luckily, there are real keyboards that can work with the iPad 2 so that solves that. The price tag back home is US$499 (R$870) for the most basic version of the tablet, coming to around US$600 (R$1000) with tax and the keyboard. In Brazil, together with import taxes and any kind of markup, the same device goes for US$950 (R$1650) alone or US$1100 (R$1900) with a keyboard. Being rather broke, what that all means is I’m out of luck to the tune of US$600, not to mention the additional US$500 hike in “import taxes”, etc.

As for other options, one includes the person receiving the item to have a friend send them a US-bought computing device through the mail and hoping it doesn’t pass through Customs where they might get dinged and have to pay a few hundred dollars to have it released. I’ve heard that anything under US$500 can go through Customs without a problem as long as there’s a receipt that accompanies the item(s). From reading the Customs website, I see that items are taxed at 50% of the amount over US$500, meaning my US$600 investment would be taxed a mere US$50. If that’s correct, then whether it passes through Customs or not, it’s not that much of an issue.

(Correction: As I now understand it, via mail, anything over US$50 gets taxed and anything over US$500, brought in person, is taxed)

My second option would mean waiting until early 2012 when the iPad 2, which will be built domestically by Foxconn Brazil starting in December, will come to the masses here. When President Rousseff took office, one of her promises was to bring tablet devices to the local market at a more affordable price. After looking at the options, it was decided last spring that the iPad would be the best bet. Since then, there have been many hiccups in the process but the latest reports say production plans are back on track.

For both those that have bought their imported iPads at higher prices and those that will soon own the domestic version, I’m hoping the ease of transporting them around town and the lower cost will open up Brazil to the work-from-a-cafe culture that the US has had for several years. I’d love to do such a thing but unfortunately it makes a person stand out a little more than I feel comfortable with.

In the Zona Sul of Rio, some of my American friends have noticed recently that iPads are being used freely by passengers on the metro. Also, some of the Starbucks that have popped up around Rio have started to attract people (aka, table-tenants) who, for the price of a coffee, stay as long as possible. Last time I checked, at the Botafogo mall, the entire seating area was full, all with people typing away at their laptops and iPhones. Together with the coming of the Brazilian iPad, it’s a sign that the times are starting to change…well, at least in Rio de Janeiro.

Living here, it really feels like every other week there’s some sort of day off…either that, or there’s been an apocalypse (ie, everyone disappeared) and I didn’t get the note. The easiest way to tell there’s a holiday on a weekday is not to consult a calendar but to walk down the street. Virtually every shop will be closed and the neighborhood will resemble a ghost town. In fact, similar scenes can be found every weekend since Sundays are no different.

One might think that if they open up shop when their competition is closed, they’ll get all the potential business. Not so, though. On such days, customers are also hard to locate. So where do Brazilians go, then? Barbeques, beaches, bars, the house of a friend or relative? While I have yet to figure out where they go (there’s only 190 million of them to ask), knowing Brazilian culture, I can say I’m pretty sure they are simply enjoying themselves. What a concept!

The Brazilian calendar has eleven public holidays that everyone gets off from work or school. Depending on the state, one probably has another five added on (like in Rio), totaling sixteen days off. When the national and state holidays are combined, and one throws in weekends, it’s easy to see why a foreigner might feel like a loner on these days.

I’ve met many Brazilians in the US that were like working-machines, going from before sunup to after sundown on a regular basis. I met one guy in particular who slept 4 hours a night and worked the rest of the time, seven days a week, for years on end. If work ethic isn’t something that is picked up overnight, then Brazilians who leave Brazil are leaving with such an ethic in tow. For people that are really hard-working and entrepreneurial, how is it that they have such a laid-back culture?

After thinking the question through and coming back to it later, I remembered reading about a possible reason for the duality. If someone lives in a country that has a history of handing out unforeseen tomorrows, which is to say, where no one knows what will happen tomorrow, they might develop two strong, yet opposing needs (working a lot and playing a lot). Brazilians work hard because they know how to take advantage of the moment. And when there are days off, well, those moments are taken advantage of with the same amount of determination.

Keep in mind, this was written while living in Niterói, (near two unknown, non-UPP favelas) while I currently live in a popular, UPP-designated favela (more on that to come).

I live in between two favelas and I’d like to share what it’s like to live here. At no time have I felt like my life was in danger but I’m told it’s not smart to go walking at night where the favelas end and the “regular part” begins. In fact, once I was standing next to my then-girlfriend waiting for a late-night bus to drive by and she told me to keep vigilant and to not stand close to her so we don’t look like a couple. I suppose the thinking behind that is that one ‘target’ is easier than two. That being said, I’ve never felt threatened in the 12-13 months of my life I’ve spent here.

Unlike most ideas of favelas being violent places, living in or near one is one of the safer places to be. If any petty thief were to rob someone who lives here, he might not wake up tomorrow because no favela boss wants to attract the police or any extra attention. It is quite important that business (ie, drug trafficking) continues as normal and that the middle to high-income customers have a safe place to buy. I suppose this safety factor is one of the perks of favela life, both for said customers and for its residents.

There is one exception to the rule and that’s when one favela is trying to take over the other for more power, prestige and money. If that were to happen here, it’d be a little too NSFL (Not Safe For Life) for my liking. From what I’ve been told, such a scenario played itself out here 10 or 15 years ago. These days, Rio’s favelas are getting the UPP (Pacified Police Force) treatment and while that’s good for those favelas in particular, the risk is that other favelas will endure hightened struggles for power and control, thereby becoming not safe to live near.

As for my daily life and how the favelas up the street affect me, it’s mostly in the noise department, as I hinted upon in a previous article about sounds in Brazil. Mornings are owned by the local wildlife (birds) and the portable gas delivery men. Weekend nights fill my ears with funk music from the local bailes. The evenings, in most cases, bring about sound-only fireworks from the hills and ‘open mic night’ from makeshift evangelical churches while nights generally go to random gunfire (a few shots here or there, every other night). Best I can guess, they’re guns being fired into the air, on account of being told by locals that this area is pretty chill.

In terms of street life, there’s the oh-so-famous street corner, attracting people from near and far, young and old, drunk and sober, all seemingly happy folk. As I wrote about on my blog, I’ve never seen so many people, on a consistent basis, on one corner in my life. Night or day, that corner is chock-full. While I go for the local shops, it seems most people go for the conversation. The idea of making time to chat with the guy who sells the news or the guy who sells the bread is part of Brazil that I have yet to adopt. I just want to get in and out and perhaps that makes me more of a foreigner than my accent.

If you are looking to live outside the fancy parts of town and are in search of a more realistic environment, I’d recommend trying to find a place near a favela, at least for a few months. It’s a sure fire way to gain perspective and when people ask you if Brazil is just partying and going to the beach, you can tell them Brazil is not just an idea, it’s real life…and you’ve lived it.

For the last month, I’ve been on the lookout for rooms to rent at a reasonable price. Finding that middle ground is tough, especially when most people rent out their rooms for prices that are crazy-high or suspiciously-low. Living in Niterói, across the bay from Rio, should have its perks, in that it’s just far enough away to offer lower rent. Not so, I find.

Scouring over the half dozen rental sites, plus a few social networking sites, I see prices set at R$1,000 per month or more. Ok, so sometimes it’s a little less but not by much. On the sites, most renters require me to be a female, though I seem to be missing a chromosome for that. The same sites almost always ask for people who study or work outside the residence, which creates a problem for me since Brazil doesn’t have the kind of work-from-a-cafe culture that the US has…and I work from my laptop.

On the social sites I check, ads are placed every few days (or at least once a week), yet no one lists the price they are asking. I can’t make heads or tails of this practice because the price point is, um, kind of important. In frustration, I started my own practice of asking “how much?” on every ad, to know for the sake of knowing but also to make a point. Perhaps it’s like jelly beans in a jar. I just need to make a guess and if I’m correct they’ll rent it to me for free or at least for that price. For the few that do respond, they inevitably throw the R$1,000 price at me.

No matter what the price, there’s always extra costs to be added on. Sometimes that cost is entirely expected (gas, electricity, water) and other times it’s a surprise to the unsuspecting foreigner (the “condomínio” tax). Roughly-speaking, the condo tax is to pay for the security guard and the building’s upkeep, while potentially increasing the cost of renting by a hundred or three hundred reais. For example, if renting an apartment is R$500 (good luck in a big city), the condo tax is almost R$300.

The best way to beat the system (ie, the high price points) is to live at least an hour or two outside the big city or to move to a less popular big city…basically, to move out of Rio or São Paulo and go elsewhere. In my search, I found many room rentals in two capital cities, Belo Horizonte and Salvador, for between R$200 and R$450 per month. From living 2 hours outside of Rio once, as well as in Belém, I can say that is on par with what I paid previously. So for everyone who thinks Brazil is automatically cheaper to live in, it really just depends. Sticking with the candy-themed analogy I made earlier, perhaps jelly beans have nothing to do with it. Renting here can be more like a box of chocolates.

I have since found a place in Rocinha, through a friend and for a good price.

Far from any coastline, in Brazil’s Central-West, lies a proverbial gold-mine of beauty. Just in case such an allusion slips the visitor’s mind, the name of the city says it all: Bonito.

Located in Mato Grosso do Sul, near the border with Paraguay, the city lies within the valley of a plateau and is the self-proclaimed “capital of eco-tourism”. The ground is made principally of limestone, meaning the water from the rivers of the region passes through a natural filtering process, making it crystal clear.

For nature-lovers, Bonito has a little bit of everything, including: snorkeling, diving, rappelling, tree-top rope courses, light rafting and horseback riding. There are also natural spas, waterfalls and caves to visit (check out a small picture gallery here). The discerning tourist might also want to keep an eye open for fig trees in the region as there’s a chance of striking it rich. A local legend says that Paraguayan soldiers in the late 1800’s, on their way to fight in Brazil, hid gold under fig trees. Some even say the ghosts of those who never made it home roam about in search of their lost treasure.

With all that Bonito offers, and in order to preserve the natural beauty, one of the local laws limits the daily number of tourists that can take guided tours of the activities offered. Any type of visitation of the region’s main attractions requires a local guide accredited by EMBRATUR, Brazil’s official tourism board, so it may be beneficial to shop around for the best prices. Between December and March, one will find the most tourists and therefore the highest prices for hotel rooms and tours. On the flip side, this period is also during the wet season and therefore everything is greener, animals are out and about and the rivers are full.

If ease and comfort are what the visitor needs, there are ways to experience a lot of what the region provides just by visiting Praia da Figueira (and Parque das Cachoeiras). Admission varies depending on the season and on the number of activities one does but, in general, it doesn’t get too expensive.

No matter how the days unfold in Bonito, there’s something for everyone (as long as that “everyone” likes nature, of course). I imagine it’s best to try a little of everything in light of the fact that a direct roundtrip ticket from Rio de Janeiro to Campo Grande (the location of the nearest airport, 3 hours out) is around US$300 for a mid-October flight.

It was 1984 and the southern city of Blumenau had recently been sunk in 50 feet of water by heavy flooding, a repeat of the events of the year before. The city and its residents were once more in shock and grief. Meanwhile, the mayor at the time, Dalto dos Reis, had been looking to put together a Brazilian version of Germany’s popular Oktoberfest for the last two years, but the floods washed away the initial hope that the event would take place that year. He looked at how the general sadness could be turned into a celebration of life. The following excerpt is from a 2006 interview with the ex-mayor:

— I spent many nights not being able to sleep, tormented by the dilemma of having the festival or not — he recalls.

Reflecting back, Dalto says he remembered something about the natural tragedies that happened in the Ukraine, causing many deaths.

— I remembered that the Ukranians, many times victims of natural disasters, would get together and drink for several days, as a way to reinvigorate themselves. I thought we should do the same, as it wouldn’t convey a lack of respect — he says.

Every year since then, for half of the month of October, the city of Blumenau has hosted the largest German party in Latin America. In international terms, it only loses out to the original Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany and the second biggest in Ontario, Canada.

In 2010, an estimated 600,000 people attended the Blumenau festival, and although 22% less people showed up than in 2009, they drank 25% more alcohol. According to last year’s numbers, each person drank around one liter of beer, an average that’s on par with the event’s bigger brother in Germany.

While the alcohol is the fuel that keeps the party going, “Oktober” (as it’s known in Blumenau) is also about wearing things like lederhosen*, the parading of clubs and custom-made vehicles, displays of marksmanship, traditional dances and tasting German food.

If you are interested in the 2011 celebration, it starts on October 6th and goes until the 23rd. Here’s the official site.

* – actually indicative of Bavarian clothing, not German, though it’s a popularly believed misconception throughout the world.

Too early for Carnival? Afraid so. Too early to dream (and possibly plan)? Of course not!

My last mention of the party of all parties revolved around the city of Recife but I´d bet that few have heard of the Italianesque Carnival of inland Pernambuco. A little more than 60 miles from Recife lies the city of Bezerros, often called the Land of Papangus. A Pap-what, you ask? A Papangu! Its a person that disguises themself with a Venetian-like mask and a long tunic, among other things, during Carnival-time across Pernambuco, especially in the city of Bezerros where such traditions are strongest.

The unique custom dates back to around 1880´s when the “papa-angu” was born from tomfoolery instigated by the relatives of sugar cane barons during Carnival celebrations. There, they would eat “angu”, (a coarse polenta) which is a typical food of the semi-arid regions of the Northeast. The verb papar, in kid-speak, means to eat, thus the name papa-angu. Tiny tikes, as it turns out, don´t always take a liking to the costumed crowd. Looking at the picture below, I can see why.

Generally, nothing can be discerned from seeing a papangu on the street, aside from their height and manner of movement. Who they are, whether they be male or female, old or young, is unknown. The revelers even go so far as to hide their costumes as they are being created in order to provide complete anonymity. One would think that such secrecy would presumably make it hard for groups to form, or in the very least, to know who is who, though hitting the streets with friends and family is quite popular..

If you´re interested in a visit next year, be mindful that the 2011 version attracted 200,000 people just on Carnival Sunday, the most popular day during the festivities and also when best costumes are chosen. Although it is likely you´d never be able to tell in the midst of all the costumed fun, residents of Recife are said to “religiously” attend during the weekend and it´s not even uncommon for some families to have a country house there as well.

Hopefully, Carnival revelry isn´t all you carve out for your trip inland. The beautiful vistas of the Serra Negra Ecological Park can be appreciated nearby, too.

Two months late, but thus is my publishing agreement.
(Guess which one is in Brazil?)

Prior to 1822, before Brazil was declared free from foreign rule, it was a Portuguese colony for 322 years. This September 7th, Brazilians will celebrate independence from Portugal with a national vacation…from work and school, that is. While independence is now shown by taking the day off to relax and perhaps by seeing a parade, it wasn’t always so.

Road to Indepedence

After the majority of the royal family returned to Lisbon in 1821, the Portuguese elite showed concern with Brazil’s status as a kingdom, bestowed upon it by Dom João VI several years prior. The result was that his son, the Regent Prince Pedro, was ordered to return to Portugal, too. At the time, Brazil was composed of two ruling, yet opposing parties, the Brazilian Party and the Portuguese Party. The former drew up a petition for Prince Pedro to remain in Brazil and create a sovereign kingdom. Eight-thousand signatures later, the prince was presented with the document and decided on the 9th of January, 1822 that he would not return to Portugal.

On September 7th, an official letter from the Portuguese court reached the prince with the message that he was, in fact, no longer a Brazilian prince since by law Brazil was no longer a kingdom. In the middle of a trip through São Paulo, along the Ipiranga river, Prince Pedro proclaimed independence with the famous cry of “Independence or death!” The next few years of the Brazilian War of Independence did bring about death for thousands of troops but by 1825, Portugal had officially recognized Brazil as autonomous. The interesting side note is that recognition was achieved by indebting Brazil to both Portugal and England.

Present Day

After all that had to happen to bring Brazil to where it is, how do Brazilians celebrate today? Unlike the 4th of July in the US, where the order of the day (err, night) is fireworks, family, BBQ and beer, Brazilians back home are surprisingly of a less celebratory nature. With so many holidays in Brazil throughout the year, the 7th of September is just one in the crowd. At best, what you’ll likely see in the big cities are military parades, the largest of which occurs in Brasília. If you fancy having a better time, heading for the US is your best bet, especially if you consider the large crowds that amass in New York City for the holiday.

Started in 1986 in an area of the city known as Little Brazil, a Brazilian businessman with a little booth and a lot of affection for his culture kicked off the first Brazilian Day in NYC. Since then, it has grown exponentially. The NYPD estimated crowds of more than one million for the 2010 event and saw similar numbers this year. The mainstay of the special day has always been the concert, which has showcased some of Brazil’s most popular musicians such as Ivete Sangalo, Daniela Mercury, Skank and Claudia Leite. As you can see in the video below, there’s nothing “little” about Little Brazil. It makes one wonder why Brazil doesn’t try to organically create what it already exports.

Forget ‘Hooked on Phonics’. Either I never really knew it before or I had just forgot, but Brazil is hooked on hygiene (hey, it works for me!). Yes, that´s right. I know that to some, the word Brazil conjures up images of favelas and possible backdrops for children´s foundation infomercials (that open with “for less than a penny a day…”), but the reality is not so. Brazilians are super-clean people, especially when it comes to their food.

Just this year, the Global Hygiene Council ranked Brazil as the country whose population washes their hands the most. It´s true…just walk into any restaurant and you´ll likely see a sink, mirror and soap dispenser near the entry. Don´t even think about touching your food with your “street hands” (hands you haven´t washed after being out in public) because any Brazilian worth their salt will be sure to remind you of your offense.

If you eat anything that can be consumed with the hands, in the least you should make use of a napkin to separate your fingers from the food. Your other option for finger foods (think pizza, french fries, etc) is to use a fork and knife, though it looks oddly snooty to me still. In the case of  drinks, wipe the opening down before you take a sip and if the drink comes with a peel-off top, peel it back so as to use the inside of the top as the contact point to drink it (make sense?).

Fancy buying veggies at the market for a home-made salad? Go right ahead, but remember to scrub them down with soap and water before giving them a final water-only rinse. Seeing the soap foam is a general indicator of a job well done (that goes for doing the dishes, too).

Yep, you got it, living in Brazil means paying attention to just about everything. Be weary of your food, of strangers, and of political promises as they are all likely to be harmful in the absence of due diligence. It´s said that Brazilians are capable of successfully living anywhere in the world due to a combination of their innate social skills, a keen eye and practical nature. In fact, I´m beginning to think the B in Brazil stands for boot-camp because I haven´t stopped learning life´s little, yet important lessons since I got here.