An L.A. Sansei's Misadventures in South America
John Katagi is a former staff member of the Japanese American National Museum. He shares memories from almost two decades of travel to South America. His experiences result from study and observation as part of the directorial staff of JEMS, a cross-cultural agency based in Los Angeles.
Stories from this series
Language School
June 9, 2011 • John Katagi
Some ESL students suggest that English is a difficult language to learn. Certainly the pronunciation of words can drive even the most proficient English speaker just a little nuts. Our language is a compilation of many different sources, mostly European. If you were studying English for the first time, would you think English pronunciation was difficult or easy? What would you do for example when faced with the “o-u-g-h” category of words? Given a succession of words like: “bough, through, …
"Yo Eh Cho" OR "Yo ee say"
April 18, 2011 • John Katagi
It’s been almost ten years since my friend, the senior Tsuchida-san, died in Paraguay. He was the Issei (first generation) patriarch of the Japanese community. And I knew from experience that if I was going to make inroads into that community, the permission to do so would have to come from him. It is customary in the Japanese culture for an outsider to make an initial visit to get acquainted and seek permission. It is an important social courtesy in …
RUN!
July 12, 2010 • John Katagi
In the mid-1990s, I stayed in an apartment on the grounds of a church in Liberdade (the J-Town section of São Paulo). On this particular afternoon, I was preparing for meetings that I planned to have later in the week. The church had an “empregada,” a native Brazilian housekeeper who came twice weekly to clean the church facility. That particular afternoon she was working in the church kitchen in another building. In the quiet of my study time, I became …
One of my weirdest experiences in Brazil
June 16, 2010 • John Katagi
My visit to the town of Tupã brought me face-to-face with . . . wait, I’ll tell you in a second. While visiting friends there, I was dropped off in the main square to take a walking tour of this small interior town in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Stopping in the late afternoon at Tupã’s local museum of indigenous artifacts, I was looking to pass the time until dinner. I perused the variety of woven baskets, clay pots, …
Brazil has steaks. And so much more!
May 14, 2010 • John Katagi
One really cannot speak of travel without including the subject of food. Travel and food go hand in hand. Name the destination, and images of touristic landmarks and exotic cuisines come to mind. When one hears “Brazil” it’s normal for people to think of the Brazilian barbecue or churrasco. The all-you-can-eat-meat-buffet has come to be synonymous with the country of cattle and gauchos. (Yes, there are gauchos in the southern Brazilian states). But to limit an understanding of Brazilian food …
What's on the Bottom of My Soup Bowl?
April 12, 2010 • John Katagi
During one of my first visits to the city of Manaus in the early 1990s, I was hosted by a Japanese language school in an area bordering the jungle called Cachoeira Grande (big waterfall). Manaus is a major capital city on the Amazon River. When I think of Manaus, there will always be scattered images and memories. Manaus is hazy, like a dream you’d rather forget. It’s a contrast between the raw natural beauty of the Amazon jungle and river …
