"no, we don't see many Portuguese people around here, I know a bit of Spanish, but not Portuguese"... - The attendant at one of the Ginza shops was helpful and nice as usual in Japan, he was also fond of Brazilian food and could say some words with Brazilian Portuguese accent.


Japan is different from what I remember from 10 years ago... Probably I'm different too and this adds to the sensation of change. This time I'm seeing a country that is much more open to foreigners than before, old people don't run away from us anymore when we approach them in the street and even those who don't speak English are always willing to help.

Those who know me, know that I'm much more a "middle of nowhere person" than someone that enjoys crowded places... "crowded" could be a 1'st, a single word description for Japan... So some of you might ask "what a hell am I doing here?"...

This was not a trip we planned for a long time and in fact it all started one month before departure when all the other options we where considering did not seam to be viable... Still Japan looked like a good idea for breaking with my usual stile of large and insolated landscape pictures...


Crowded is not really close to the best word for describing Japan and in fact I'm not sure there is one... Even in crowded places there's some kind of silence that brings me back to my own thoughts, there's a sense of order and respect from all those who share the same space with us. Sometimes I wonder if this sensation of silence might come only from the fact that we can't understand the language... But I guess that's not the only reason...