And so I arrived at the city of Toyohashi one day before I had to report in.
This is the first time I set foot in Toyohashi... And oh boy...so many Brazilians around!!
Brown skin amongst small eyes…
But of course, it’s not just their brown skin that sets them apart. It’s the way they dress, the way the walk…the way the look around. Like, I saw this one family walking by…father was dressed like punks do, mother was dressed in a bright pink tube top and denim short pants, and along was a little girl. Mother was enjoying her stroll and father was eyeballing everyone who looks at them. If that lady dressed like that, of course everyone will look!! Why the eyeball?? Why not put a coat around her or something!! Please don’t mistake me for a conservative, I’m all for bright pink tube top but…there are better places for her to dress like that, not at the train station!!
Anyway, the reason why there are so many Brazilians here is because, about a century ago, Japanese saw a very intriguing posters posted all over...
Says "Come on! Let's go to South America!!"
For every participant, they will be given a hoe and two tiny dolls along with a miniature flag. Now, we all know how much Japanese like small dolls...so, hundreds of thousands of people signed up and emigrated to Brazil. And they liked it there!! While Japanese women are all covered up in kimono....well, we can all assume emigrants there visited a popular beach.
Japanese Brazilians started to spring up everywhere...so, Brazilian government and Japanese government drew up some kind of deal that provided them with Japanese citizenship. After some time, these JB decided they wanted to "make use of" their citizenship. Thus the number of Brazilians here...but only god knows why they chose Toyohashi and not any other city.
And the high school girls here are…very different compared to where I came from. Let’s put it this way, I have never seen so many upskirts in a single day before. I mean, they don’t even make any effort to conceal their undies!!! They wear this ridiculously short skirts, then sit on the ground with their knees raised….sort of reminds you of the “Welcome” sign hung outside shops isn’t it? Call me a pervert all you want, but, if I didn’t look at them legs and nylon (some are silk), all my guy friends and my girlfriend will have something to worry about...my gal pals would probably start asking me for chocolate muffins recipe.
At least I was decent enough not to take pictures of them just so I can upload them here…
Okay, enough of me being a salivating wolf...
They have trams here!! A cute one too...
I thought trams only exist in Hiroshima and Hokkaido.
They had a band going on right in front of the train station.
And I started thinking that Nagaoka is way more “kampung” than Toyohashi.
Anyway, I met Jeremy, Kelly, Chin Wooi and Siew Ling later that evening. My god it’s good to see Siew Ling again!! It’s been like…5 years since I last saw her. Haven’t seen her for so long that I almost instinctively offer a handshake and say “hello, nice to meet you”. She still looks pretty much the same though…prettier than I remembered, but still the same I knew her to be. Good to see you, girl..
Well, had a wonderful dinner…had to bore myself listening to them talk the “Toyohashi Talk”…but a nice evening nonetheless…
Jeremy was kind enough to offer me his room floor for the night. The next day, I get ready to start my first day in TOPY!!!
