‘Nani ka O-sagashi desuka (May I help you)?’
I was talked to by a Japanese shopper at a grocery shop ‘La bottega golosa’ in Japanese when I walked around the central market in Florence, Italy. I was surprised because I thought Japanese runs a shop in the local market. But she said, ‘I take a part-time job’. I spoke Japanese for the first time after I started to travel, so I enjoyed talking to her for a while.
I found a big Pinocchio doll in front of the shop.
‘The author of Pinocchio was born here, wasn’t he?’, I asked (I came to know that the day before 
).
‘Yes. There is still the house where he was born near the market’, she said.
‘Really?’ It was very interesting information.
‘Maybe on the Taddea street.’
I tried to find the house that morning because I had some time until I would go to the Uffizi museum. Some old houses are on the street but I couldn’t find the house easily.
I walked along the street and asked police and a clerk of a hotel on the street. Finally, I found the old house and the wall relief that said, ‘IN QVESTA CASA NACQVE NEL 1826 CARLO LORENZINI DETTO IL COLLODO PADRE DI PINOCCHIO 29 OTTOBRE XX‘ on the entrance.
The house isn’t a tourist spot and maybe someone lives now.
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I bought a Pinocchio novel (Japanese edition) after I came back to Japan. 
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