Liberdade, according to some posts on TripAdvisor, is "Little Tokyo". This kind of gross exaggeration bordering on ignorance makes me lose confidence in the content of this web site. Liberdade is dirty, unkempt, full of tacky shops - nothing like Tokyo at all.
There was but one shop near the market stalls that sells genuine Japanese articles, the rest are just tourist tack mostly mimicking Japanese products. It's a crying shame that Japanese culture is being parodied in this unsympathetic manner.
The first thing that looks decidedly out of place is the use of Torii gate in a commercial area. In Japanese tradition, a torii gate is most commonly found at the entrance or within a Shinto shrine, marking the transition from the profane to the sacred. The Liberdade community has other thoughts on exploiting this recognizable symbol of Japan.
It was Saturday and there were market stalls selling food, jewelry, plants, clothes - all the usual suspects at a market. Here I found the second thing that looks distinctly non Japanese: the variety of food being sold from market stalls, all of them adapted for local taste. The gyozas were four times the size of a gyoza in Japan; there were even grilled shrimps in their shells - something I did not see at Japan. Really, the Japanese descendants could do better.
The third thing that looks out of place is the street vendor trading from the pavement. This cannot be Japanese at all. China, may be. Worse still, there were many traders selling copy videos some of which are clearly pornography.
There were a number of Chinese provision stores / supermarkets and there, I saw vegetables that I am familiar with - they were the staple diet during my childhood in Hong Kong. There were also many Chinese food stuffs, including the egg rolls that I used to love until I realized the amount of calories in them.
Liberdade was very busy during the weekend. Tourists flock to this place. I was hoping to find proper sushi, sashimi, ramen noodles, tonkatsu, etc. to revive my taste buds,but I only found faux sushi made only with salmon. What a disappointment.
And now, to something definitely not Japanese: mural art. But this is São Paulo, so why not? Or maybe I should research a little bit on Japanese sci-fi art?
There was but one shop near the market stalls that sells genuine Japanese articles, the rest are just tourist tack mostly mimicking Japanese products. It's a crying shame that Japanese culture is being parodied in this unsympathetic manner.
The first thing that looks decidedly out of place is the use of Torii gate in a commercial area. In Japanese tradition, a torii gate is most commonly found at the entrance or within a Shinto shrine, marking the transition from the profane to the sacred. The Liberdade community has other thoughts on exploiting this recognizable symbol of Japan.
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| A Torii gate at Liberdade |
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| Japanese food? |
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| Local version of bonsai |
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| Pavement traders |
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| Chinese vegetables |
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| Busy weekend, Liberdade |
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| Mural, Liberdade |
