I had the perfect chance to exercise my Uketamo muscle today, and it happened on Haguro-san too, where the philosophy originates.

I was leaving the shrine taking an unconventional exit as I was there on business. I turned one corner to see that some construction workers had laid out a cone so perfectly as to not let any vehicle past.

Since I had already turned the corner, to go another way would involve me reversing about 10m, and then moving through a crowd of junior high school students. So, I opted to ask the workers if I could move the cone the 10 or so centimetres needed for me to get my car through.

No dice.

This guy wouldn’t let up, and he told me to go the other way. I told him it was only about 10 or so centimetres, but to no avail.

I ended up reversing, and also having to honk my horn at the junior high school students, all for the sake of a 10cm gap.

To be honest, this fired me up. How can someone be so particular about a cone?

But then I thought about it more, it’s just a cone, and it was only a minor inconvenience. Nothing to get my pants twisted about. Plus, if I had made a scene, it would make me look like the bad guy, no matter how right I was.

In the end, I had to exercise my Uketamo muscle so as to not let things get out of hand.

And now that I’ve written this, I can begin the forgetting process too.