Today really became an unforgettable day.
The 2 AM Biohazard
At 2 AM, when I stepped into the hall to go to the bathroom, the person sharing my room was in there. After finishing I went back to the room and closed the door that had been ajar. I thought it wasn't good to leave it open from a security perspective.
However, five minutes later I heard the door rattling loudly. Apparently they had gone to the bathroom without their card key, and the door had locked so they couldn't get back in. This hostel only supplies electricity when you insert the card key, so everyone probably left their doors half-open because it was a hassle.
That person had, even before that, suddenly walked around the hallway and made noises, and to be honest I was scared. So I didn't open the door. Then every 15 minutes there would be sounds of the door being banged or pulled hard, and my heart was pounding. It continued for five hours — from 2 AM until 7 in the morning. Of course I couldn't sleep. In the morning, when someone else went outside, that person finally seemed to be able to get back into the room.
It felt like a scene from Biohazard. Truly unforgettable.
An Afternoon at an Art Café and Records
I finally went to bed at 9 AM and woke up at 1:30 PM. Today I had plans to meet a friend I met in Bangkok, so I walked to the station.
After meeting up with her, we went to a café first. I ordered Earl Grey, she ordered a matcha latte. She had taught herself Chinese and Japanese, and apparently majors in business and marketing at university. She loves music and often listens to Oasis, Queen, and indie music.
Then we went to a shop that combined records and a café. Records by everyone from Ed Sheeran to Queen were lined up — truly every kind — and because our musical tastes were similar we both got excited.
The moment I finally began to understand 'art is freedom'
Next we went to a cozy little café. When we went in, it turned out to be an art studio integrated with the café. There was lots of greenery and it felt like being in a forest. Many people were painting in front of canvases. Brushes and ink were freely available, and if you bought a canvas anyone could paint.
She said she wanted to buy a canvas, so I bought one with her. Watching her start to paint made me want to express myself too, so I bought the smallest canvas (300 baht, about 1,200 yen). I squeezed out pure yellow, red, blue, and white, and began to paint.
Until now, I hadn't understood at all the freedom of turning what's inside you into art. The phrase 'art is freedom,' often said by Taro Okamoto — I finally felt like I was beginning to understand it.
What's in your head is chaotic, energetic, a mixture of suffering, joy, and expectation. Putting it into words can be too impactful and hard for others to accept. But through art you can express it freely — it's all up to how the viewer interprets it. That's what I thought 'freedom' is.
I write things down every day like a diary, but turning them into a painting is somehow interesting. This was truly a new discovery.
Red is me
What I painted was a piece centered on red. Red is the fundamental human energy and passion — something sharp. It's as raw as blood, but at its core there is a light of hope. I'm thrusting that into the world and trying to break through by trial and error. Inside it there is a lot of suffering and despair.
I want to break rigid preconceptions and established ideas. But that's not easy, and sometimes it looks completely bleak. I expressed that with blue. To break something, loneliness and sadness accompany you. That's the black part.
Things I hadn't even noticed about myself are exposed on the canvas like this. I'm sure I've been influenced by Taro Okamoto, Kandinsky, and Chagall. Art is fascinating.
A Thai message in the adventure notebook
Before I knew it it was already past 7 PM. We'd been together for five hours since meeting at 2 PM. We ate Thai food and painted — it was really a fulfilling time.
On our way back she wrote a message in Thai in my adventure notebook. Thai script is such an interesting script unlike anything I've seen before, so it felt full of mystery and watching it gave me real stimulation and emotion. She has beautiful handwriting and wrote it carefully while being a bit shy. I also wrote a message in Japanese and gave it to her.
Thanks to her I was able to have the long-awaited experience of painting with paint on a canvas, and I wouldn't have discovered the stylish café and the record-café by myself. I was really able to enjoy it from the bottom of my heart — it became a great memory. I can only be grateful.
Encounters while traveling always take you to unexpected places. Today was exactly like that. Back at the hostel, eating a plate of pork and rice, I was still thinking about the painting I made today.
