Japantown

I awake to a coughing fit around 3 AM. Other than that little interruption, I have a pretty good night's sleep. Rising at 8.

Alexei knocks on my door, as arranged, at 9. No Andrew, of course. He isn't really a breakfast person. Or a before midday person.

The breakfast room is large and busy. I have scrambled egg and cheese for my main. Fruit for pudding. Washed down with buckets of coffee and orange juice.

There’s no bacon. Just those weird slices of sausage floating in some red stuff. Alexei gives that a go, but isn’t too impressed.

“What’s the red stuff, dad?”

“No idea.” Not sure I want to know, really. “I steer well clear of it.”

“Dad, would you watch Young Sheldon?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“For obvious reasons.”

“Which are?”

“That it’s total shite.”

“And?”

“I’m not an idiot. That enough reasons?”

“No.”

“Well, they’re enough for me.”

After a little chilling in my room, we venture to the metro. The closest stop isn't far. While we're trying to work out how to get tickets, I nice security guard comes up to us and explains how it works in pretty much perfect English. We just need to get paper tickets from the counter. It's a pretty simple process. And pay in cash, weirdly.

It’s very spacious here. Which implies they have masses of people passing through.

We're only going two stops. To the cathedral.

“Look, they have the Spanish system.” Andrew remarks, as the doors open on both sides. One side to get on, the other to get off. That also implies that it gets very busy.

“They have that in the centre of Munich, too.” I respond.

The cathedral is pretty impressive. Not so much in the area it covers, as in its height. Some lovely stained glass, too.

There’s a very strong police presence around the cathedral. Should that reassure or worry me?

Next stop is Japan Town. We could take the metro for one stop. But that seems a waste. Instead, we walk. It isn't that far. On the way, we pas a shop with a very impressive display of meat. So impressive, I take a photo.

It's very busy. I suppose it is Saturday. We're looking for a restaurant. I expected there to be loads. There aren't.

Eventually we find one, Banri. It's pretty full. We have to wait a while for a table. Then things start going wrong.

We try to order drinks. But there's some problem. We get the help of a waiter. But they can’t fix it, either. It seems that they're out of the beer the kids wanted.  Great. It takes around 10 minutes to fix.

We order spring rolls and gyozas. You can never go wrong with gyozas. And more drinks. Caipirinha for me, Heineken for the kids.

Some of the menu items – like chop suey – aren’t exactly Japanese. Not even authentic Chinese.

“Dad, would you live in the USA?”

“I did live there. Surely you know that?”

“I mean would you live there again?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Lack of a safety net.”

“What do you mean?”

“One accident, and you’re fucked. I had two. My pair of broken ankles would have cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“Wouldn’t your insurance pay?”

“Hahaha . . .” I laugh so hard I have a coughing fit.

After a few minutes of coughing: “No.”

We finish with a plate of sushi and gyozas all around. Then it's a walk back to the cathedral and the metro.

On the way from the metro to our hotel, we drop by a supermarket. For sandwich makings. And some drinks, of course. We get a bottle of 51 cachaca. It's just 11 reals something. About 2 euros. For almost a litre. Obviously, this being Brazil it comes in a weird measure: 965 mil.

We eat drink and watch YouTube. Before turning in pretty early. We fly back tomorrow.



Restaurante Banri
R. Galvão Bueno, 160
Liberdade,
São Paulo
SP, 01506-000.