Nice to meet you. My name is Rui Takizuka and I have been a member of Monosus Thailand since November 2016.
My nickname is Takki. I've been living in Thailand for six years now.
This time, I would like to talk about why I came to Thailand and what I did there for a long time.
I would like to tell you about what I usually do.
chance
I first came to Thailand when I was 17 years old, so my involvement with Thailand has already spanned almost half my life.
It all started when my mother's friend ran a guesthouse in Bangkok and invited me to stay.
I made many Thai friends there, but since we both spoke broken English, we could only converse on a superficial level.
I want to communicate with them more. Have deep, heart-to-heart conversations!
That was what got me interested in Thailand.
It was around that time that I was thinking about continuing my education, so I decided without hesitation to enroll at Tokyo University of Agriculture, where I could study Thai.
The university also has a sister school in Thailand. However, when I tried to take a Thai language class, I dropped out after one hour...
This is not living Thai! I know, I should study abroad.
Days in the Rainforest
Having no interest in finding a job, I decided to go on to graduate school and study abroad in Thailand for a year.
But the professor said, "For Thai? What are you talking about? Study it."
Graduate school is a place to go for research, so if you say you want to study abroad to study Thai, you will be scolded.
I was thinking of doing some research on Thai culture, when my professor asked me, "What about Buddhist agricultural development in Thailand?"
Based on this recommendation, I decided to make it my theme as it sounded interesting.
It was about that time. The president of a local company whom I met at a guesthouse in Thailand asked me, "Do you want to study web design?"
I was interested in this invitation, so I grabbed a book, studied HTML and CSS, and decided to create some websites together with the president.
It was fun to decide on the design myself and think about how to put it together in accordance with that, and I remember writing out endless sources on paper.
This is where a busy life of Buddhism, agriculture, the Internet, and Thailand began.
I spent a year doing graduate research at Kasetsart University in Thailand, where I attended Thai language lectures every day.
Sometimes I would go deep into the rainforest and practice meditation for days on end, or learn about Buddhism from a monk.
The monk who took care of me
Scenery around the temple...
Another time, I researched the agricultural economy in northeastern Thailand, and another time, I created a website next to buffaloes grazing on grass.
I was also at the forest temple during the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Cafe management in Chiang Mai
I had become completely Thai and my first job was in Chiang Mai.
I worked in a fruit factory and made some good friends.
I was a little surprised to learn that my friend's parents' house was a gambling den, but everyone treated me kindly and warmly, as if I were a member of the family.
I went to his house almost every day and was treated to a delicious meal.
On my days off, I go elephant riding or visit Doi Suthep, Thailand's sacred mountain, and the nearby waterfalls.
An elephant's trunk is rough
The Golden Temple of Wat Doi Suthep
One day, I was so excited to have bought my favorite clothes. I was crossing the street with a spring in my step, like I had wings, when I saw a motorcycle!
I was thrown off so hard that I broke my collarbone.
I lost all motivation and quit my job. I thought about going back to Japan... but Thailand was fun after all.
He stayed in Chiang Mai and decided to take a break from work with his girlfriend (who was Thai) by opening a cafe.
In front of a cafe during Songkran (too blurry)
We rent a small space in front of the hotel and sell coffee, tea and fruit juice every morning.
Most of the customers were white, but there were also some Japanese customers who came to learn massage.
I found out along the way that the shop I was running was in an area with many transgender pubs nearby.
What was impressive was that every morning, a transvestite would drink a mug of iced tea in one gulp on her way home from work.
While I was working at the shop, she experienced many heartbreaks, and each time she would sing early in the morning, so loudly that the whole neighborhood could hear her.
Language study notebooks with my ex-girlfriend. The top is Thai and the bottom is her Japanese. (After this, I got angry and got into a fight because she only gave me two points.)
I had a lot of fun at the cafe, but as the off-season came around, the number of customers gradually decreased...and soon I was poor.
Collecting stamps from 7-Eleven to buy things, spending a day on 5 baht, stealing green papaya from my neighbor,
He accompanies his friends as a "good luck charm" to a beetle sumo match where grown adults get serious about gambling, and receives pocket money.
(By the way, the defeated rhinoceros beetles are fried and eaten.)
It was a very enjoyable life.
But I still didn't have enough money...so a friend introduced me to Bangkok.
I got a job at an IT company and have been there ever since.
Thailand as I think of it now
Bangkok is a very convenient and easy place to live compared to the countryside. If you get hungry, there are convenience stores nearby just like in Tokyo.
Local Thai food is available from 30 baht per meal.
If you miss Japanese food, you can buy it at a Japanese supermarket, or you can go to a department store along the BTS and eat it right away.
If you get tired after work, there are beauty salons and massage parlours everywhere, and there are also Japanese karaoke, manga rentals, and movie theatres.
As for living, although prices are high, it is a very convenient place where you don't have to worry about anything.
In the countryside, you can enjoy the untouched, magnificent nature. First, you bathe in the water stored in your turtle or in a nearby river. For meals, you harvest rice, gather wild plants, bananas and papayas, and chase and catch fleeing chickens. You can also catch owls.
Chicken and chicks. Fast
We buy our daily necessities at a small shop where an old lady who is hard of hearing sits. When we get our change, the customer tells the old lady "this is __ baht," and the old lady counts out the money one by one, slowly and carefully, while munching away...I can't wait!
In the evening, you can enjoy watching fireflies, stars, and the howling of dogs.
Majestic Nature (Doi Inthanon, Chiang Mai)
Both are fun in their own way, so I think that's one of Thailand's charms.
Nowadays I live in the center of Bangkok, have access to all the modern conveniences, and lead a super-modern social life while writing novels and scripts.
I'm writing this seriously so that it doesn't end up being just a hobby. I hope it sees the light of day.
Dreams for the Future
A few years ago, I would have thought that I might settle in Thailand permanently and spend the rest of my life there.
However, recently I have been feeling a growing desire to travel and live in other countries.
I want to go to Europe if possible. To do that, I want to improve my language skills and increase the things I can do on my own.
I love the web, so I want to study and increase my knowledge and use it in something.
My dream for the future is to work in hotels all over the world.
Since joining Monosusthai, I have witnessed the Japanese and Thai staff working hard together to create something and rejoicing in each other's growth, which has only increased my own desire to grow.
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