Liberdade, the Japanese neighborhood

The city of São Paulo has the largest population of Japanese people living outside Japan. They came to Brazil in the begining of the XX century to work in farms mostly (as slavery was abolished in 1888). In São Paulo, they've settled in a neighborhood that would be later called Liberdade (freedom). I love the street lamp posts and the signs in Japanese.

My grandparents were among Japanese immigrants. My grandfather was a photographer (surprise, surprise!) and my grandmother helped him in the studio and ran the house. I didn't get to meet my grandma and I don't remember my grandpa much. He didn't speak much Portuguese and it was hard for me to understand the little he said with a very thick Japanese accent. He used to give me candy and he had puzzles inside cans for the granchildren to play with when we visited.