A Tropical Japan

[Donmai]

Wow. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Brazil and Japan is celebrating 120 years. Some events are happening this year, and one of them was a presentation of Hinoki-Ya, a traditional Japanese musical group, in my city. I was especially curious about this presentation, because that group comes from the city of Hakodate, Hokkaido.
While I was developing Toire No Hanako, I made a big research on geography and culture of the island of Hokkaido and its biggest cities (one of the main characters in the story, Reiko, was born and raised in Hakodate, before moving to Sapporo).
But hey, why a self-proclaimed non-otaku like me decided to create yet another japanese hi-school drama on his first experience as a VN creator? Well, mainly as a tribute to some friends. Yes, here in Brazil Japanese descendants are everywhere.
In fact the largest population of Japanese origin, living outside Japan, is in Brazil. You can read about this here: http://www.tofugu.com/2011/11/08/japanese-brazil/
Curiously, talk about Brazil to a japanese, and he will instantly think about Bossa Nova, Samba, Coffee, Pelé. Brazilian culture, especially music, can also have some impact in Japan.
In the Internet, it's not difficult to find such things like this Japanese group which tries to mimic Brazilian music (Brazilian flags on their instruments, and all). The lyrics are in Portuguese (or something that sounds like Portuguese). And no, you won't find a banjo player in a genuine Brazilian group . There should be a "cavaquinho" player, but I doubt a non-Portuguese speaker would be able to pronounce this world correctly...

[Donmai]

And here is side B: not their usual style, but fifteen years ago Brazilian group Pato Fu (of Japanese-descendant singer Fernanda Takai) released a song in Japanese (with a bit of Sesame Street and Pizzicato 5 throwed in). Have no idea what the lyrics are saying (apart from some words like "AmeriKa" and "Nihon"), but watching the video it's not difficult to figure out what's all about.