There's people walking in just every possible direction, wearing a black suit, carrying a portfolio or just checking time, making sure that he or she is not missing an important meeting a couple of blocks ahead.
Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Petrobras, Bandeirantes, Bank Boston, all the flagships of Brazil's economy are represented here in capricious buildings whose true intention is to advertise wealth, power and entrepreneurship. The Sheraton Mofarrej, the most expensive hotel in town, is a couple of blocks from here. Very close is the Rennaissance (where I was lucky enough to stay, back in 1997).
But it's not just skyscrappers which give Sao Paulo a 'New York' feel. More important is the cosmopolitan -and global- face of this city, inhabited by more than 10 million souls.
Walking through Liberdade, the oriental district, you won't feel like in New York anymore, but rather in Tokio. From the beginning of the XX century, thousands of Japanese immigrants settled in Brazil -they were later followed by Korean and Chinese as well.
If you want a first hand account of the Japanese in Brazil, visit the Museum of Japanese Immigration on Rua San Joaquim 381. The museum documents a century of Japanese migration to South America, featuring some of the old tool and devices that they had to come up with in order to adapt to this tropical land.
The Japanese in Brazil -especially in Sao Paulo state- are an interesting phenomenom that illustrates ties between far away, distant countries. For instance, think about Poland and the U.S.A., and you will have Chicago representing what Sao Paulo does for Brazil and Japan... Or what to say about the Italians in New York, or the Cubans and the Jews in Miami?
Let me go further in this point by bringing to analysis the English-Spanish troubled relationship of the XVI century. Even though Diego Flores de Valdés was captured with his ship Rosario by Sir Francis Drake, and brought to captivity to England, he was the first to work on an English-Spanish dictionary, thus evaporating the boundaries of language that existed between both nations.
If you're curious to know, the first Portuguese-Japanese dictionary was not commenced until the late XIX century, and Wasabaru Otake, who landed in Rio de Janeiro in 1890, made a great contribution to it. Nowadays, Japan remains one of the top 5 trading partners of Brazil, with imports topping $1.7 billion in the first half of 2000.
But far from figures and anecdotes, what's truly amazing about the Japanese is how they came to adapt to this foreign and hot land in the South. Think about it for a second, and you wouldn't find anything in the Japanese culture -hard work, inventiveness, colective spirit, even religion- that ressembles the easygoingness and sometimes lazy way of rural Brazil. The 1999 census counts about 0.46% of total population as 'amarela'.
Few cities in the world can approach the diversity and excitement of Sao Paulo at night. Just as the sun sets down, partying is the rule everywhere.
Before seeing Sao Paulo, I couldn't imagine any place having such a great nightlife as Paris does. There you can get stuck in traffic at 3.00 a.m. Every restaurant and eatery is packed, and there are long queues to catch a taxi to anywhere.
Sao Paulo actually lives and breathes by night. If you visit one bar and disco after another, you will see how music, women and a talk-to-everybody and who-cares-about attitude invades Sao Paulo's nights.
I must say a final word about this city, and that is food. Eating is taken seriously here, and food just disappoint. Being so diverse and global, the city offers some of the best Italian and Japanese dishes served around the world. I tried Carlino, which has been serving pasta for over a century (it was next door to my hotel, the Itamarati on Rua Viera de Carvalho). Churrascarias and lanchonettes abound in the city, and you can experiment with the many varieties of fine juices. I also tried Ponto Chic, which has a reputation for serving 'Paulistano' originals like the bauru sandwich.
