Full-on Thai vibes. "Typical Thailand" scenes spotted in the city

Thailand is a country full of interesting, fun, and addictive charm. Here is a handful of "typically Thai" scenes I found on the street corners of Thailand.

➡️ Thailand's "Toki Shiozawa"

Discovered in a convenience store candy aisle. Toki Shiozawa, who gained popularity on the former daytime show "Lion no Itadakimasu" and passed away in 2007. I don't think Thai people know who she is, but given her unique hairstyle and large glasses, middle-aged people will immediately be reminded of "Auntie Toki."Toki Shiozawa.

➡️ Retro simplicity is the selling point. Tea-picking lady in the mountainous region

In a corner of the mountainous region, far from the hustle and bustle, there was a lady picking jasmine tea leaves in the traditional way. While she may not be sophisticated, her soft gaze conveys her earnestness and simplicity.

"Would you like some tea?"

If you take a break with her jasmine tea, you'll be reminded of the Sunset Nyan-ko. The small size is about 170 yen, and the large size is about 340 yen.

➡️ Still going strong. An old-school ice cream vendor

This is also an ice cream vendor that continues to uphold traditional sales methods. The retro appearance, approaching with the cool, tinkling sound of a bell, seems to bring back memories of childhood.

The old man, undeterred by the heat, was once again delivering cool treats on his tricycle today.

➡️ Do they know what it means? Or is it just for style? A mudguard that grows on you

One of the first things that comes to mind when you hear "Thailand" is likely the three-wheeled tuk-tuk. The sight of them tearing through the city, scattering the pleasant, rhythmic roar of a two-stroke engine and black smoke, along with the lines of them waiting for passengers at tourist spots, are iconic features of Bangkok.

At one point, I noticed a strange inscription on the rear mudguard.

4WD

Thinking I might be mistaken, I looked it up, and 4WD was explained in the dictionary like this.

No matter how many times I checked the tuk-tuk, it had three wheels, and there was no sign of the front wheel being driven. I don't know if it's meant to be stylish or a pun, but in reality, the reason is likely just "it looked cool, so I wrote it on the mudguard" without even knowing the meaning of 4WD.

➡️ In Thailand, a paradise for rats, there is a wide selection of powerful and catchy rodenticides.

Thailand is a country with a good climate, high temperature and humidity, and an abundance of food waste. For the rats, it can truly be called paradise. Since the rats eat their fill of nutritious feasts every day, they aresurprisingly huge. Really huge. Also, they are not afraid of people.

Please be careful when walking near trash collection areas at night. Rats will be scurrying back and forth around your feet.

However, in general, I don't think there is a strong interest in pest control in Thailand. This is because there is no end to it. Pests increase exponentially, just like the rats themselves. In an environment where it is impossible to exterminate them completely, it is no wonder that people choose to coexist with rats and cockroaches, half out of resignation. If you peek behind the scenes of a local eatery, you will find their "big families" living there too. Ignorance is bliss.

➡️ Super hot! Watch out for burns! Direct heat conduction design pot

It is an electric pot that teaches you the lesson that "you must not let your guard down for even a second when handling boiling water."Because they intentionally didn't coat the main body, you can directly experience the true heat of the boiling water. Tiger Corporation has a product called "Wakuko," but this pot should be called HANABISHI's "Achako."

I once stayed at a cheap hotel that had this same type of pot. I carelessly touched it a little and jumped up because it was so hot.

When I asked the pot salesperson, "This will cause burns, won't it? Isn't it dangerous? Why is it made like this?" they replied, "I don't know. If that's the case, buy this one instead," and recommended a different type.

I suppose when we boil water in a kettle, we are careful to hold the handle so as not to touch the metal part. So perhaps the designer of this pot thought, "It's obvious the metal part will get hot when you boil water. It's the same thing, right?"

In any case, this is a pot that I absolutely cannot recommend for households with small children, as it is far too dangerous.

➡️ "Your focus is SHARP, isn't it?" A hearty sumo wrestler rice cooker

SHARP, a home appliance manufacturer from Japan, also a rice-growing country, chose a "sumo wrestler" as the character to promote Japanese technology and culture to the Thai rice cooker market. It leaves the impression that you can cook plenty of delicious rice, enough to keep going back for seconds.

🍚←←←←←👀

If you look closely at this sumo wrestler, he is left-handed, and there are also fine details depicting his playful side, such as giving a "thumbs up."

➡️ "SUPER JUMBO" for large sizes

Next is also related to sumo. Just as Japanese people associate Thailand with Muay Thai, perhaps Thai people associate Japan with Grand Sumo, especially the large-bodied wrestlers.

The tag attached to the large 4L size features a scene of Makuuchi wrestlers colliding intensely. It is aptly named "SUPER JUMBO." Even if it is not made in Japan, it is an excellent design that could lead consumers to mistakenly believe it is an imported item from Japan.

➡️ A fancy, fairy-tale world on the move. Moe-style bus

In Thailand, I see tour buses with unique paint jobs almost every day. The person who painted the body might not be a professional, but their passion comes through loud and clear.

Some paint anime-style characters, others paint American comic book heroes, all running their brushes across the canvas of the vehicle body as they please. Because they are filled with such passion, you can feel a uniquely Thai flavor that AI image generation could never replicate.

➡️ The straw problem. How am I supposed to drink this?

In Japan, the style is to drink directly from the bottle, but in Thailand, even with a plastic bottle the size shown in the image, a straw is provided. I've heard that this is because people don't want to put their mouths directly on the rim, as you never know what kind of distribution process it has gone through. In short, the idea is to avoid the potentially unsanitary rim and suck the contents up through a straw.

Now, at restaurants in Thailand, water is generally not provided for free, so you end up ordering a plastic bottle of water for about 100 yen.

Once, when I ordered water at a certain Japanese-owned restaurant, it was served like this. No glass was provided, and the staff member just left the bottle and the straw and walked away.

It is immediately obvious that the straw is shorter than the total length of the plastic bottle. What happens if you insert this into the bottle to drink the water? This should also be immediately obvious, yet it is served without a hint of doubt.

Following the laws of physics, the straw sinks. Once this happens, you can no longer drink water through the straw, and instead, you end up having to sip the water little by little while being careful not to swallow the straw itself.

Also, while the straw this time was individually wrapped, there are many cases where that is not the case. It is very common for them to be served with your drink after being picked up by fingers that have touched everything around and are far from clean. In such moments, I am left confused by the irony of the situation, wondering, "Wait, wasn't the point of using a straw to drink hygienically?"

Naturally, you don't use a straw for beer; you drink it straight from the bottle. However, there are some eateries that, perhaps due to a lack of space, place beer crates right next to the urinals in the restroom. Please be careful with the beer served in busy areas.

➡️Firmly refusing retirement. A 24-year veteran who insists on being active for life

If you are an old-school pro-wrestling fan, you likely remember the intense generational rivalry between the "New Leaders" and "Now Leaders" that once unfolded on the New Japan Pro-Wrestling mats.

It is inevitable that generational change repeats itself in every world, not just in pro-wrestling, but on the Thai subway, there is something that stubbornly refuses to retire and continues to hold its ground. That isWindows 2000, which, as the name suggests, was released in the year 2000, so 24 years have already passed. Furthermore, its support ended in 2010.

• It doesn't respond when you touch the screen

• You can't select the station you want to go to properly

• It doesn't accept coins when you insert them

• It doesn't accept banknotes when you insert them

• The change coins are dispensed all over the tray, making them extremely difficult to pick up

And so on; this ticket machine always frustrates me, but I was surprised to find out its OS was Windows 2000. It is nothing short of a miracle that a railway company operating in the capital of Thailand is still using this, not in a typical household or a small-to-medium enterprise.

On this day as well, it seemed to have crashed suddenly during business hours, and it was taking a long time to reboot.

Whether it's the subway or the Skytrain, you can buy tickets at the counter in addition to the ticket machines, but the manned counters are always popular. Thai ticket machines perform very poorly and take a long time to purchase from. Since there is a business opportunity lying dormant here, I would love for Japanese companies to win the contract.

➡️Funny Japanese

In Thailand, which is considered a pro-Japanese country, you can see Japanese everywhere. Sadly, however, it is rarely written in correct Japanese. The most typical example is the misunderstanding that the long vowel mark should be written as "ー", which remains horizontal even in vertical writing. For example, "Cowboy" would be written as

カ
ウ
ボ
ー
イ

.

Well, I don't know how you would translate it to get "It burns", but regardless, this was adopted as the store name. This shop sold various sweet snacks, so perhaps it represents their stance of burning with fighting spirit as they go about their sales.

Either way, since almost no Thai people can read Japanese, none of the customers seem to care.

I'd like to say goodbye with an image fitting for the finale. This store, featuring a design resembling the Rising Sun flag and labeled "See you later", was selling gyoza.

If we interpret it charitably, could there be a hidden intention of "many customers" -> "come back anytime" -> "See you later"?

The sight of a macho man watching over from the shadows of the shop is also somewhat surreal.