Roll the Chance Gacha: Go Outside on Weekends

Thank You, Jung#

Last Saturday: I woke up around noon and spent the afternoon in a daze, mindlessly watching YouTube videos. Around evening, the following video popped up in my recommendations:

You’ll Never Look at Pleasure the Same After This – Carl Jung

Ever reach for pleasure… and still feel empty?Carl Jung believed that most of what we call “pleasure” is really anesthesia — a way to avoid the silence, the ...

www.youtube.com

It was a thought-provoking video along the lines of “distraction is like anesthesia; you need to face what’s inside yourself.” I found it intriguing in connection with Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey,” and at the same time, felt it was remarkably effective as self-help.

Inspired by this video, I decided to head outside. For starters, my immediate goal was simply to visit an abura soba (soupless ramen) shop where you get perks by presenting your voting certificate from the House of Councillors election. Yet along the way, I ended up stumbling into a series of wonderful events.

Witnessing a Supermarket’s Final Day#

The destination was about 3 km away. The breeze felt pleasant that day and it was relatively cool, so on a whim, I decided to jog there. Hearing a friend mention the day before that they had started jogging might have unconsciously influenced me as well.

As I made my way through the streets, catching my breath, scenery that I’d normally overlook jumped out at me. Amidst all that, in front of a familiar supermarket, I spotted a sign: “Store Closing Sale.” And to top it off, today was its very last day in business.

That supermarket was a store that had taken care of me throughout my college days.

I walked past it once, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I turned back and greeted the store manager. The manager probably didn’t remember me in the slightest, but I had a mountain of memories tied to that store.

Living on a shoestring budget back then, I rarely ate out, sticking exclusively to cooking simple meals at home. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that during my college years, 70% of my physical body was made of ingredients from that supermarket (the remaining 30% being clearance items and bread crusts from a neighborhood bakery).

In short, it was an indispensable presence in any telling of my student years. Being able to convey my gratitude in person was something I was genuinely happy about.

From Abura Soba to Jazz#

From the supermarket to the abura soba shop was another 2 km. Because I never exercise, I gave up on jogging almost immediately. In the end, I only really ran about 1 km, but even now, three days later, my muscles are still aching. That’s how terribly out of shape I am.

After polishing off my abura soba—with the portion of noodles doubled thanks to presenting my voting certificate—I wandered around town wondering what to do next, only to discover that free jazz concerts were taking place all over the city that day. I don’t know much about jazz, but I’d just heard that a friend was about to pick up the saxophone, which had piqued my interest.

So, I decided to check out a nearby venue.

I only caught the performances of the last two groups, but both were phenomenal. From the first group, I got to hear a saxophone solo just as I’d hoped. The second group didn’t have a saxophone, but they delivered a breathtaking performance worthy of closing out the show.

Synchronicity#

What struck me most of all was that the final song the second group played was Bobby Troup’s “Route 66.”

Bobby Troup - Route 66

"The Julie London Show" Japan May 1964.

www.youtube.com

This song is deeply memorable to me because it was playing inside the vehicle when I joined a Grand Canyon tour in the past.

I Went on a Whirlwind Tour from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Moenave Dinosaur Tracks, Route 66, and Seligman

My friend picking up the saxophone, and my own memories of the Grand Canyon tour. These seemingly completely unrelated events suddenly converged through this single song.

At this point, I couldn’t help but feel a rush of synchronicity. And the fact that the trigger for this whole chain of events was a video about Carl Jung made it feel like an almost too-perfect coincidence.

Just to be clear: the “synchronicity” I’m talking about here is the psychological concept coined by Carl Jung—“meaningful coincidence”—not some twisted woo-woo interpretation. The only reason this sequence of events felt “meaningful” was that so many layers of my personal context happened to overlap.

What if, on that Saturday evening, I had decided, “It’s too much hassle, I’ll just stay home and chill”?

The supermarket that had sustained me would have quietly shut its doors without my ever knowing. The chance to express my gratitude to the manager would have been lost forever. I would have had no way of knowing that free jazz concerts were taking place in town, and my first-ever live jazz experience would have been pushed off to some distant future. And above all, I never would have experienced this strange and beautiful convergence of coincidences.

Between the “empty weekend” that my lazy mind was set to produce and the “special weekend” I actually lived through, the fork in fate came down to just one tiny decision: “Let’s go outside.”

Go Roll the Chance Gacha#

Here, at last, we arrive back at the title of this post. I believe that stepping outside is, in and of itself, the act of rolling the “chance gacha.”

If you stay cooped up inside the house, you don’t even earn the right to pull the gacha. You just keep getting days guaranteed to be “misses” where nothing happens. But take one step outside, and countless possibilities are lying around. SSR events might be few and far between, but you’d be surprised how often you can pull an SR or an R. And even if you pull an N (nothing at all), you still walk away with the guaranteed minimum EXP of having breathed fresh air and moved your body.

Conversely, going out isn’t the only way to roll the chance gacha. Taking a different route on your way back from somewhere is a good one. Ordering something different from usual at your regular restaurant is another.

These are proactive and personal methods, but an even better one might be having good friends. Friends can bring you choices that lie completely outside your sphere of interest. Just asking what they’re hooked on or interested in can open up an entirely new world.

Ultimately, I think humans are adventurous creatures. Our ancestors are the ones who survived precisely because they took risks and went on adventures. Baked into almost every human being must be a function that evaluates adventure more favorably than boredom.

Underlying mechanics aside, I feel that I undeniably pulled an SSR this time. It was a peak experience: bringing a beautiful sense of closure to my student memories, opening the door to new music, and having past experiences and current interests connect as if struck by lightning.