A Japanese man travels a thousand miles to live a Chinese-style rural life

Everyone

has creative potential

Even the smallest craft has its own value

Let the world see you

Infinite possibilities

In Chiba Prefecture, Japan, there is a person called "Roku"

His real name is Tiao Liaotailang

When he was young, he loved traveling everywhere

The name "Roku" was one he gave himself during his travels

His journey began at age 18

That year, having just been admitted to university, he told his teacher

"Teacher, I don't want to attend classes anymore, I want to travel around the world

I'll study the courses on my own, and email my homework regularly

I'll come back for exams"

His classmates all thought he was crazy,

but unexpectedly, the teacher was moved by him!

Just like that, Roku didn't take a single penny from his family

He made a road sign from scrap cardboard he picked up

Happily, he shouldered his backpack

and set off, traveling while completing his studies

After setting out on his journey around the world

Roku admired the snow in Hokkaido

wandered in the forests of Kagoshima

watched volcanic eruptions in Okinawa...

taking in all the beautiful scenery of his homeland

Besides going to the most beautiful places to admire the scenery

what Roku enjoyed doing most was working in the countryside

Most people would find it exhausting just hearing about it

But Roku didn't think so

Under the blazing sun, he learned farming from the local elderly

Making miso, growing vegetables, driving tractors, doing all kinds of farm work

He would stay in the fields for a whole day

In his words, he was communicating with the plants

Later, after getting tired of Japan

he went to other countries

working while traveling

doing all kinds of jobs to earn money

At age 20, he learned natural farming in India

4 years later, in Dali, he made a living by playing the didgeridoo

an Australian Aboriginal instrument

While in Southeast Asia

he even broke his leg trying to watch a lunar eclipse

That day, he lay on the mountaintop all night

and only the next day did he get someone to help carry him down

Although afterward, Roku said with a smile

"I'm still lucky, it was only a fracture"

But that night, he was a little scared

"I felt like I was always running, but didn't know where I was going

Maybe I'd wander until I die"

For the first time, Roku felt lost

To better recuperate, he learned massage in Thailand for a while

Here, he met a woman named Ayako

Everyone called her "Aya"

The two met when they went to Thailand

and traveled together

Along the way, the two looked after each other

and gradually grew familiar

Later, they even went to India together

Finally arriving at the Inner Mongolia grasslands

There they pitched a tent

and lived and herded with the local nomads

The days were simple, but Roku felt peace and steadiness

Soon, he and Aya got married

They began planning for their future together

Roku said he wanted to find a place in China with a good environment

to have their child, no longer wander, and live their own little life

Just like that, he and Aya came to Dali to settle down

As for why they chose Dali

Roku's explanation was

"I've been here before, there's work here to earn money

there are friends, there's a place to sleep, and there's land."

It was just that simple

Not long after coming to Dali

the two welcomed their own baby

Roku personally delivered the baby

Roku had read books on natural childbirth

Before Aya went into labor

the two didn't agree to a cesarean section

So he delivered the baby for Aya himself at home

"At first I was really nervous

but after studying, I felt it was fine

But this really is an amazing thing"

In these years in Dali, Roku and Aya successively

delivered their two children

When someone asks about this topic, Roku says

"It's all thanks to Aya,

I just sat beside her playing guitar and singing,

She felt relaxed and the baby came out easily."

Roku's words stunned everyone

"So giving birth is this easy"

Roku started grinning foolishly

After the children were born

They began working on their little house

Before they moved in

this place was a long-abandoned old house

Cacti stood on the roof, agave lined the walls

The old house without electricity was pitch black

It leaked wind everywhere, and the furniture was all broken

Roku found a way to run electrical wires

and built walls himself to block the drafts

"Little One" wasn't even as tall as the wall

but still insisted on coming to help

When welcoming "Number Two"

he built a heating stove in the house

and ran heating to every room

As for the flowers in the yard, the cacti on the walls

he just let them grow freely

Knowing that Aya loved baking bread

Roku specially built a bread oven

So the cookies and cakes the children loved to eat were all available

In the old town there were no fancy toys

So he made a swing from tires and hemp rope

and converted discarded materials into a small basketball hoop

The children played so happily

To let the children grow up healthy

Not far from home

Roku also rented a vegetable plot

and planted more than 30 kinds of vegetables including perilla, burdock, greens, and radishes

In Liu's view

if you eat good things

your body will be healthy and you will be happy

Liu says what he practices is "natural farming,"

which means using no methods at all

just letting that patch of soil grow naturally

The gaps between crops also have to be especially large

they must not crowd each other

Only then will the crops live happily

"How can unhappy crops grow well?"

So, every year his fields can

produce the most abundant and most delicious fruits

enough for a family's three meals a day

Many people see Liu cheerful and smiling

and all say they envy his life

But he says: "If you don't like it, it's especially bitter and especially tiring."

During the busy farming season

you have to soak in the fields as soon as dawn breaks

and come back at night under the stars

When not busy

you have to take the rice, wheat and vegetables you grew

as well as the soy sauce, MSG, vinegar and rice wine brewed at home

and the hemp seed oil, skincare products, cakes and so on that Aya makes, to the market to sell

occasionally run off to a bar in the old town to perform

make musical instruments for friends

and earn a bit of pocket money

"As long as you know what you want

you won't feel that hardship is hardship"

Friends praise him for being "good at everything"

He just says I like it this way

When there is free time

he and his wife take the children to the farmland

watch them play

eat things

and see the children happy

and the two of them are very content

Only when it comes to the children's future education

does Liu show a little hesitation

"I can't afford the private kindergarten here at 3,000 yuan a month

but Japan isn't this expensive

As for ordinary kindergarten

it depends on what the children like, I won't force it."

For the children's sake, they may return to Japan

But they still love a simple pastoral life

Liu once said

"As long as we live earnestly

everything we want will naturally come"

Right now, with a wife and children

with family, with work and a house

with a firm heart, life is simple and happy

Liu feels there is nothing better than this

Even just gazing at the sky in a daze

is comfortable