Flying to Brazil

There is hardly a longer route than Tokyo to Sao Paulo, and it usually
involves a mandatory stopover in the U.S. Tokyo to the U.S. is about 13
hours and going on to Sao Paulo is an extra 9. I've written before to
comment on the fact that the largest hardship is going through U.S.
security, where the system treats ticketed passengers first like
criminals and second as compliant bodies, although most TSA staff are at
least somewhat personable.
However, I mostly enjoy air travel and revel in the hours I get "to
myself" to watch countless movies, drink some wine and just relax.
However, after going back and forth from Tokyo to Sao Paulo on the same
airline twice in two months, I have now seen almost every movie they
have on offer (except for those I couldn't stand 30 minutes into the
film) as well as a season's worth of about 4 different television series
(this trip I went through Arrested Development, including the pilot).
The service on the flights has always been friendly, which makes up for
the fact that they don't have a regular outlet available to power my PC,
but for whatever reason they do have a "cigarette lighter" outlet for
electronic devices. Hence, it's time to shut down my computer and get
some rest. Just three hours to go.

Final Seminar

During our project in Manaus, we held 3 workshops over a course of about
8 months, and last week we had a final seminar. Each time we invited
about 2-300 stakeholders and have had between 130 to 200 people come
each time. Needless to say, this takes a lot of time and effort to
prepare in advance, but after the first one, we had a formula of how to
get everything done. Also, after three prior experiences, I now knew to
expect the pace at which things would proceed; this is good to know in
order to preserve your sanity. Plus, it is always good to keep in mind
that unexpected things may happen.
To give an idea of the scale of these events, the first workshop was
groundbreaking for most involved: over 180 people attended and we had to
provide space and staff to hold separate group discussions for 100
people in the afternoon. Somehow we managed to pull it off above
expectations and that served as a model for the next two workshops. The
final seminar attracted about 150 people throughout the day, but didn't
include a workshop to discuss the issues at hand, just a Q&A
session--which anyone familiar with Brazilian culture will know is quite
a fiery affair in itself.
Brazilians most certainly love their language, and some might say they
celebrate it with gusto at every opportunity. As an example, after the
first workshop, we decided to use a smaller piece of paper for people to
write and submit questions because people were tending to write short
essays, which would then be read in full and answered at length, well
into the lunch hour. That obstacle is compounded by the fact that in
Brazil if you say something starts at 8am, most people show up around 9
and the event gets going around 10. So my main worry at these events is
how we will ever get through the busy programs we schedule in a limited
number of hours. However, even with a late start at the first workshop,
we were able to adjust the program only slightly to accommodate all of
the planned activities and still end at 5pm. So at this final seminar,
when it was 9:30 and the guests of honor who would give the opening
addresses were still nowhere in sight, I wasn't too worried. By 10,
things were underway. Even when a heavy thunderstorm outside knocked out
the electricity at 10:20, no one panicked, no one stirred. The glow of a
few laptops lit the auditorium, but other than that it was dark and
silent for a minute or so, with the thunder and rain just audible. After
a while, an official made an announcement that the power would be back
on shortly, and in 5 minutes the house lights were back up. Five minutes
after that, the computer and projector were back on and the speaker
continued with his presentation. The seminar ended without further
incident around 4pm, and amazingly, slightly ahead of schedule.

Last Afternoon in Sao Paulo

Suzuki-san and I checked out of our rooms at 12pm and had the front desk hold our luggage as we went out to explore Liberdade (Sao Paulo) for the afternoon. We didn't have to catch a taxi to the airport until around 5pm, so we had plenty of time. The morning had been quite calm, with few people out and about at 11, but after lunch it seemed like most of the people had already hit the town. Vendors were set up along the sidewalks selling everything from scalp massage gadgets (see below) to pirated CDs and DVDs. Since Suzuki-san and I both have the same addiction to scouring through the stacks looking at titles, we spent a lot of time hanging around "the pirates"; Suzuki-san was looking for a Japanese movie titled "Ima kara ai ni ikimasu" (Be with You - 2004) and I was looking to catch up with Lost (before anyone can ruin the last two seasons for me). We didn't have much luck with that, but Suzuki-san miraculously found a 2011 verson of some computer software--obviously genuine--and couldn't resist buying it.

We headed past Liberdade and over to São Francisco Square where the magnificent edifice of University of Sao Paulo School of Law stands. After a few photos there, we found our way to the center of town to Sé Square, which is lined with beautiful palm trees and also the site of the breathtaking, Gothic-style São Paulo Cathedral. After marveling at the massive domed ceiling and stained-glass windows while sitting in the pews, we strolled down the street, rode on the escalators to the subway just for fun, and then headed to a restaurant with a patio to rest our legs and get a drink and some lunch. It was almost 3pm, so we spent the rest of the afternoon in Liberdade looking for salted fish roe Suzuki-san wanted (a delicacy that goes well with Japanese saké) and exploring some of the shopping complexes we found to see what they had in store. Since it was the Japanese section of the city, it wasn't too surprising to find a lot of Japanese products, but we were slightly taken aback by all the interest in Japanese comic book and anime figurine shops--it was like a mini Akihabara--crawling with Brazilian otaku teenagers. At nearly 5pm, back near the hotel, we finally found not only the salted fish roe, but also the DVDs we were both looking for. Feeling satisfied, we bid São Paulo ciao and headed for the airport.

Anyone for tennis?

Last year, during a one-month stint in Manaus, I decided to spend part of my weekends at tennis lessons. Most everyone I work with has been playing for years, and while I enjoy the game for exercise and companionship, I'd never taken a lesson, and "winging it" hadn't been very effective up to that point. I snared a private instructor and a court reservation at the academia de tênis. The court was located outdoors, and with the tropical heat rising to the upper 30s C (90s F) by mid-morning, I started my lessons at 7am Saturday and Sunday. Since we always contract a driver, Monteiro, to get around (there is very little public transportation in Manaus), and he and I get along quite well--despite my lack of Portuguese and his rudimentary English--he got a racquet from the instructor and joined the lessons. It was good to have another beginner to lob the ball back and forth, and drills work better with more than one person; plus, it was just fun to hang out with Monteiro.
Since my lessons, I've only had the chance to play tennis a handful of times, but Monteiro has become an avid player. He gets together with friends every weekend to play for two hours, and has joined our weekend games as a regular member as well. He's gotten quite good at the game in fact. The irony of all this is that, originally, he took me to play soccer and gave me some tips on how to pass and shoot. I played with a group of his friends a few weekends and enjoyed being part of a particularly Brazilian pastime. However, sometimes I had to skip soccer because I was too tired from playing tennis, so there was some contention for us between the two sports. Monteiro is a big fan of soccer (particularly, the team Flamengo) and has been playing the game his whole life, but with a knee injury some years ago, and turning 40 recently, he decided that he would forgo soccer and switch to tennis as his sport of choice.
So as we said our goodbyes the other day, at the end of our project, we exchanged kind words and hopes to stay in touch. Then he thanked me for introducing him to tennis and he would always remember that. It makes me glad to know that when Monteiro plays tennis with his friends, he'll remember our lessons on those mercury-rising weekend mornings, driving to the tennis academy with the Brazilian rock band Pitty or my Chris Cornell CD blaring on the car stereo. Or exhausted but full of adrenaline after the lesson, dropping by the sandy beach along the Amazon River to get some coconut juice and hang out by the port.

Taxi Ride

After a pleasant afternoon in Liberdade, we took a taxi to the airport. Our driver turned out to be a second-generation nikkei Japanese man, about 76 years old. He had never been to Japan, but his parents had immigrated to Brazil in the 1930s and he spoke fluent Japanese. He said he had moved from Mato Grosso State to Sao Paulo city from the countryside when he was in his early 20s and worked at a Japanese company there. He was a nice guy and we all chatted on the way to the airport. At the end of the ride, after helping us get our luggage out of the trunk, he smiled and waved as if we were distant relatives and he was sending us off. It was quite a nice end to the day before our flight back to Japan.

Liberdade ni Funjatta

We arrived past midnight at the Nikkey Palace Hotel in the Liberdade neighborhood of Sao Paulo. We chose to stay in Liberdade because it is known as "Little Japan" since so many Japanese (and, these days, Chinese and Korean) immigrants settled here; in fact, it's the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. It's been 100 years since the large migration from Japan to Brazil, so the "Japanese" living here now are largely second- and third-generation; in Japanese, "second-generation Japanese" is nikkei (日経), hence the name of our hotel. Nikkey Palace Hotel turned out to be a nice place, with staff that speak Portuguese, English and Japanese, so we were able to communicate quite easily.
Suzuki-san and I decided to meet at 9 a.m. and walk around the neighborhood. It was a slightly chilly Saturday morning, but there were plenty of people out and about. We walked up the street towards a square where there is a market every weekend. As we walked up the street, we passed a busy restaurant and Suzuki-san realized he'd stepped in something. Whatever it was, the color was a slightly rotten yellowish-brown; almost the color of a day-old egg yolk. We decided it was either something made of egg that someone had dropped coming out of the restaurant, or it was something a doggy had dropped after eating something made of egg that someone had dropped coming out of the restaurant. In any case, when we arrived at the park, we found some puddles and Suzuki-san washed his shoe off clean. Then a middle-aged man came up to us sounding rather irritated saying something in Portuguese. When we told him we didn't understand, he switched to Japanese and asked if we understood. He was a nikkei Japanese-Brazilian of course, and once he found out that Suzuki-san was Japanese, they had a more friendly conversation. He told us that homeless and drinkers make a mess of the park on the weekends, and the people who sell things at the market are left to clean it up. He had hosed his part of the park down, and that's why there were puddles there in the first place. We told him Suzuki-san had probably stepped in egg, and the guy was nice enough to agree it looked like it was probably just egg. We apologized anyway and then moved on to continue our walk.
Walking around town, we found there is a Japanese Immigration Museum in town, but it doesn't open until the afternoon, so we are going to go back later. We also found a shop called Toji Funjatta, which means "Stepped in (it)" in Japanese. The shop was closed, so we weren't sure what it was (maybe a bar?), but I took Suzuki-san's picture in front of it to commemorate out morning adventure.
Other parts of town were quite nice, and when the sun came out around 10a.m., we walked through an outdoor fruit & vegetable market, and then stopped at a stand selling fried pastries filled with cheese and meats. I managed to order one filled with ham and cheese (we just ordered at random) and we sat down and shared it. After another short walk, we arrived back at our hotel for a short rest...which brings us to the present moment. We still have quite a few hours before we need to head back to the airport, so hopefully we'll find something fun to do nearby. But in any case, it's nice to have time in Sao Paulo to see some sights and not just the airport.

43 kilos

Our flight from Manaus to Sao Paulo went well, although checking in took
a little more work than we had anticipated. We knew we had luggage over
the limit--43 kilograms, to be exact--but we didn't know that we had to
go to a separate airline counter to pay the fee. I don't know what the 3
people in front of us were doing, but it was taking a long time and
everyone involved looked frustrated. When we only had 30 minutes until
our supposed departure time, it was finally our turn. We only had a
limited amount of local currency on us, but managed to scrounge together
just enough to pay the fee, then go through security and boarded
immediately. The flight left the gate just 10 minutes later and we
arrived in Sao Paulo on time.
Before catching a taxi to go to our hotel, we put our luggage with a
storage service, then decided to hit an airport restaurant for dinner.
We ended up choosing a place called On The Rocks since they served beer
and light meals. My colleague had a Bohemian beer and I ordered an
Itaipava Premium beer, which was dry and crisp. For food I got what was
basically a huge salad atop two thinly sliced cuts of rare roast beef. A
"meat salad" might sound like a contradiction, but proportionally, it
seemed like a good balance, and tasted great.
After dinner we went to the taxi information booth and told them the
address of our hotel. They gave us a taxi slip with the cost of the trip
printed on it and the address of our hotel. The driver took it, nodded,
and opened the door to his cab. Cozy in the backseat, and a little bit
exhausted, I snoozed most of the way to the hotel, looking forward to
seeing Sao Paulo tomorrow.