Brazilian / Japanese Culture – “Japanese Brazilians Discover They Are Foreigners in the Country of Their Ancestors”

No Place to Call Home: Japanese Brazilians Discover They Are Foreigners in the Country of Their Ancestors

This is a very interesting essay written from the perspective of a Brazilian man of Japanese ancestory traveling to Japan and the way he feels and is treated as a foreigner. It’s a bit long, but definitely worth reading. Here’s a sample:

“Japanese Brazilians are now relatively well integrated into Brazilian society, but because of the attention that is given to racial appearance in Brazil, other Brazilians always refer to them as japones. I noticed this kind of treatment a few days after I arrived in Porto Alegre. “Oi, japones!” a Brazilian street vendor called out to me, trying to interest me in his goods.”

…This is a type of scene that i have seen many times in Brazil, even though it is completely normal to see people with Japanese ancestory in Brazil, it being the country with the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.

 Read the full story written by Takeyuki Tsuda here.

From my window on the train rolling into the station in Tokyo, the people waiting on the station platform were a blur. As we slowed down to our precise stopping point, Japanese faces came into focus. The doors opened, and people shuffled in or out of the car. Just before the doors closed, three men strolled in. Compared with the other passengers, these Japanese appeared quite different, their demeanor casual and leisurely. Two were dressed in shirts of bright mixed colors and jeans with a stripe down the side. The third wore a T-shirt with the word “Brasil.” They were in the middle of a loud, boisterous conversation, in Portuguese.

“It’s really funny,” one of them remarked, leaning against a handrail with his hands in his pockets. “He goes on talking and talking, but the Japanese don’t understand him.”

“The poor guy,” another said. “It’s because his Japanese is old-fashioned. Not only that, it’s a dialect from Okinawa.” They laughed.

Instantly the three men–Brazilians of Japanese descent–drew the attention of the surrounding native-born Japanese. Some looked up from their newspapers to stare. Other gave furtive glances, pretending not to notice the strangers. Two women sitting beside me turned their eyes away from the men and looked at each other. They exchanged one word: gaijin (“foreigners”). (Via Natural History. Read More…)

japan & brazil

 

Japanese Culture in Brazil & Some Japanese Words That Have Been Adopted into Portuguese

Japanese Culture In Brazil & Some Japanese Words That Have Been Adopted into Portuguese

Brazil is that the country has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. Japanese immigrants have been here for over 100 years, and the culture has been deeply infiltrated into a number of communities in the country. In São Paulo and other places where there are many Brazilians of Japanese heritage, we have become used to some Japanese words and they’ve been adopted into the Portuguese language (often these words have been “aportuguesadas,” meaning that their spelling has been changed a bit to adapt to Portuguese orthography, as you will see below.)

Japanese Words In Portuguese (“Aportuguesadas”)

origami

bonsai – bonsai tree

caraoquê – karaoke

karatê / caratê (forma aportuguesada) – karate

saquê – sake

ofurô, banho ofurô  – a round wooden hot-tub (ofurôs are becoming popular at spas in Brazil)

suxi – sushi

quimono – kimono

camicase – kamikaze

banho de ofurô service offered at a Brazilian spa

On an unrelated note…Read more on the sacred Japanese banho de ofurô ritual in Portuguese Here, or read about more Portuguese spa vocab Here. 🙂