The Antidote to FOMO
Heavy Rain ☔️
Hakone, June 2024
TL;DR: Rain ruined our plans in Japan. But it is the rainy days – the spoiled plans and fallen trees – that create the scarcity required to make the good days matter.
Chasing summer between the hemispheres has dispelled the common traveler’s greatest fear: Rain. ☔️
It is pouring outside, and my mind wanders to the strange ways we talk about weather.
Raining on my parade. (Classic.)
When it rains, it pours. (True.)
And my personal favorite from Spain: ¡Está cayendo la del pulpo! (”The one of the octopus is falling!”) 🐙
Isn’t it interesting how we use rain as the universal metaphor for spoiled plans? We treat it like an enemy.
Well, I’ve been saving this perspective for a rainy day.
I have been on the road since the beginning of the year. When you live out of a backpack, you are obsessed with “maximizing” every day. But days like today –where the sky closes up and cancels your plans– are a secret blessing. They are a forced retreat from the relentless search for external stimuli.
Chasing Summer
For those wondering, I am currently on a pseudo-sabbatical, traveling around the Asia-Pacific region with my better half.
My modus vivendi has boiled down to a simple algorithm:
Explore where the wind takes us.
Secure specialty caffeine.
Eat dubious street food to save money for expensive flights.
I have petted marsupials, dodged surveillance cameras in authoritarian states, and spent an embarrassing amount of money on Gashapon machines to complete a collection of obese Shiba Inu figurines.
But over the past six months, I have learned that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
When you have total freedom, your itinerary becomes a to-do list. “I’ve come this far, so I HAVE to see the temple.” Most of us are hardwired not to waste time. We treat leisure like a job.
Rain is the antidote. Rain is the only thing that dilutes the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). When the heavens open, the pressure to “do” evaporates. You are allowed to just “be.”
The Buffet Paradox
Imagine you are at life’s all-you-can-eat buffet. You are salivating over the endless options. But here’s the kicker: You can’t eat everything.
If we could gorge ourselves on every experience, we’d end up with flavor fatigue. Our taste buds would be dead. Ironically, that is precisely what keeps us hungry.
My father used to say: “When you choose one thing, you give up all others.”
You can’t have everything in this life – and that’s a good thing. If you did, it would mean nothing. Like gold (or Bitcoin cough), it is scarcity that drives value.
The Hakone Disaster
Let me tell you a story about failure.
After a few weeks in Tokyo, we headed to Hakone, a mountain town famous for hot springs (onsen) and iconic views of Mt. Fuji.
We bought the “2-Day Free Pass” — buses, trains, cable cars, pirate ships (yes, really). We had a schedule. We had a plan.
You guessed it… it rained. Not a drizzle. A deluge. 24 hours of non-stop, biblical rain.
Despite the prospect of hydroplaning rather than hiking, we fought back. We refused to let the weather win. We put on our ponchos like the plastic-wrapped warriors we were and marched into the storm.
Mother Nature humbled us immediately. We battled the elements for hours, soaked to the bone in our Birko-Flor sandals. The final nail in the coffin came when we reached the path to the bathhouse –our only refuge– and found it blocked by a massive fallen tree.
It became clear: Today was not going to be the day. Defeated, cold, and wet, we retreated to our guesthouse.
But then, the magic happened. We said, “To hell with it. Let’s stay another day.”
We scored a last-minute ryokan deal that would have normally been out of our budget. We soaked in a private bath while the storm raged outside.
And the next morning? The weather gods delivered. The sky was a piercing blue. The air was crisp. We rode the cable car, saw the sulfur chimneys, and got a crystal-clear view of Mt. Fuji.
It was the best day of the trip. And it was only the best day because the day before had been the worst.
Moral of the Story
Life doesn’t care about your 2-Day Pass. Some of your plans will go awry. Trees will fall.
But when every day is a cornucopia of possibilities, sometimes it is nice to have the decision taken out of your hands.
Rain and the vagabond life seem like a bad combination. But to weather the storm, it’s best not to be married to a plan.
Parting Thoughts
Rain has given me a new appreciation for the sun. When it’s not raining on your parade, it actually feels like one.
Still waiting for that falling octopus, though. 🐙
Papus was here ! Go 'n' get them son.
Great reflections, that would make your father happy ;)