Doing nothing

It's rainy season in Japan. This means that it rains, possibly all day (or all night) at a steady drizzle. Occasionally a typhoon will come and hit and that will increase the rain from a steady drizzle to a strong downpour. It doesn't change much, as most of the trains still run, and life is still the same, it is just louder outside.

This means that your activities are either wet or indoors. Where I live, there isn't much to do indoors and the apartments are small. Average size is under 50 square meters. You are confined to a small space for about a month of rain, with only occasional outings (gym, shopping, restaurants) as options unless you want to spend money on shows and events.

It's a good time to get caught up on TV shows, movies, read books, learn something, or perhaps best of all, do nothing. Doing nothing is an art form, to be able to sit on the couch, stare at the wall, lost in your own thoughts and not get stressed out. It is a time to process things but in a way that doesn't overthink or even better to think on nothing.

In Japan, there is even a character to refer to this state of doing nothing, 間. It's part of Japanese philosophy and means the space between. Japanese have practiced this to perfection as there are many times in the year when it is time to do nothing. When you wait for the government office to respond to you, when its rainy season, when it is too hot to go outside, when a natural disaster hits and you must wait for things to rebuild.

You do nothing.