Nagoya is also a city that went to great lengths to accomodate foreigners. Unlike Osaka, (which is the 2nd biggest city in Japan), the train directions are said in both Japanese and English in the trains, sometimes even in Chinese and Portuguese. There was once a big influx of Brazilian immigrants in Nagoya. During the economic boom of Japan, they were out of labour and they made it easy for Brazilians to settle in Nagoya for work. There was already good relationships between Brazil and Japan (Brazil being the 2nd largest Japanese speaking country!)... I am not sure if all this is related to the fact that the Portuguese were the first non-asians to trade with Japan. I should look into it.Today we went to the Nagoya aquarium.. it was very beautiful and the urban landscape around the aquarium seems to come straight out of a hollywood sci-fi movie. (photos). I have many photos of the Aquarium exhibits... We went to a village called Italian Village where it is a fake Italian village that tries to mimick the real Italy. I thought it was an absurd idea, but I guess it makes a nice tourist attraction.. but who would have thought of building a fake village from scratch into Italian theme, complete with small rivers with gondollas, Italian restaurants and high-fashion designer clothes? I asked my friend's girfriend if there were any Italians living there, but it is only an illusion, no one lives in the Italian village, it is just there to give people a taste of Italy. I categorically refused to take pictures because that was not part of Japan anymore for me, but I did take two pictures. Oh, she answered that there were 2-3 Italians working there. After our visit we exactly counted 3 Italians working in the various shops. We returned to Nagoya station in the late afternoon to say goodbye and I was home in time for dinner. The Shinkansen (bullet train) is useful, though very expensive, to use with moderation. I will see my Canadian friend again next Saturday, when we move into the University dormitories of Kansai Gaidai.
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