Paulo’s Blog

Asakusa Samba Carnival

Dance on the streets of Tokyo

I love the Asakusa area of Tokyo because there are many colourful festivals. Most of them are part of old Japaneses traditions, but there’s also a new one near Sensoji Temple called the Asakusa Samba. It’s a costume and dance event that links Brazilian and Japanese cultures, so it’s very important to me. It’s special because I was born in Brazil but I’ve got a Japanese background.

My Brazilian heritage

My great grandfather was born in Japan, but he migrated to Brazil about a hundred years ago because there wasn’t any work in Kobe at that time. In Brazil he found work on coffee farms and that’s where my family began.

I’m Brazilian and Portuguese is my first language, but I live in Tokyo now. Unlike my great grandfather, I moved to Japan ten years ago to find work here. I’m not the only Japanese-Brazilian in Tokyo; there are lots of us here now, thousands in fact.

Amazing Costumes!

I really love dancing because it reminds me of Brazil. I practice the samba at the club here in Tokyo and I danced in the carnival last year. The best thing is the beautiful Brazilian dancers.

They dress up in amazing costumes with huge feathers and lots of glitter. In the past, the dancers were mainly Brazilian, but now there are many Japanese dancers too. It’s great to see everyone dancing together on the streets of Tokyo, but I don’t think the locals can dance as well as us!