Niji No Hashi (The Rainbow Bridge)

I was born in Sao Paulo, my name is Carlos
My nickname is Cosmo, like the star
I'm a mix of fifth generation Japanese,
my mother tongue is Portuguese, of course
I was working at a cheap hotel in Liberdade,
all the tourists who came were nice to me, saying
"Hey, call me when you come to Japan!"
I was always looking for a chance
Saved up money for a plane ticket,
it took me three years
I mastered the language on the internet
though I didn't plan on being a student
My dream was to open a club in my hometown
My family came a 100 years ago, dropping sweat in farms across the land
which leads us to now, obridado, now it's my turn, ta ligado?
The goddess of luck changes her mind easily
and I wanted her all to myself
I had a girlfriend, her name was Isabella, she had emeralds for eyes
but one day she left, what happened to our promise?
Rumor says she went to Japon to make money,
Bella, what were you looking for?
I wanted to be your Real, so now all that matters is dineiro
I can still hear her sweet singing,
back then no matter how hard it was,
you would put your head on my chest and sing these words:

"On the other side of the rainbow bridge, I heard there's treasures,
On the base of the rainbow bridge, I heard somebody buried treasures,
On the other side of the rainbow bridge, I heard there's treasures"
blowing rainbow-colored bubbles, from the rich country of Japon

When I landed in Japon, it was all good at first,
friends I visited let me stay
but my work didn't last long, eventually nobody would help me
I was on the streets when I met Ken, he was a Nikkei like me
He was so upbeat and we became good friends, he even let me stay at his pad
Ken had left a girl back home, he was sending presents every week
I was out of money, so he introduced me to somebody for a job
The one-eyed man was running an antique store
When I went to the back, it was an operation of illegal jewelry and stolen property
"You look like them, I can use you" he said,
The place was a den for foreigners without visas
You could realte to everyone there, since we all had the same experience
You try to work hard, then people treat us differently based on skin tone,
so I could understand them going mad
Honestly, I was numb too
Otherwise I would have made money seriously
My job was to prepare for and be the look out during burglary
I drank with the little money I had
When the cashier was a foreigner, I couldn't look him in the eye
I didn't want to stare into a broken mirror

"On the other side of the rainbow bridge, I heard there are treasures,
On the base of the rainbow bridge, I heard somebody buried treasures,
On the other side of the rainbow bridge, I heard there are treasures"
blowing rainbow-colored bubbles, from the rich country of Japon

I finally woke up after a letter from my parents
it read "you don't need to send us money"
I felt their care and a tear rolled down my cheek,
I'm sorry for being a bad son
I know there's a lot of smart people out there
but I hit a wall of discrimination
I met kids born here who couldn't leave
and I met kids who could leave but wouldn't
I thought "I want to go home while I still can"
Somehow Isabella entered my mind
I didn't have any money, so I talked to Ken that night at the bar
He asked me to do one last job
"It'll be your last, so let's go out big, huh?"
Ken wanted out too, but I knew that he was into drugs
"After we make this hit, we won't tell the boss and we can go home together?" he laughed
"Amigo, this is the job for you, it's called Cosmos, oh, it's just a bank"
We took turns to check out the spot
The security guard was suspicious of me just lining up
I wasn't doing anything yet, it pissed me off but it was actually funny
Many times I wondered what I was doing, but I didn't even know what I had to lose
The job was surprisingly easy, I was just sitting in the car
My share was a million yen, I bought the ticket for the airport limousine
The moving scenery was all white, I saw a rainbow appear in the western sky