When traveling, always be prepared for all kinds of weather.
That is a mantra more people maybe should try to heed.
The last thing anyone wants is to do is fall prey to climate, especially without help.
Case in point…
Redditor 1247111622 wanted to discuss their experience and get some feedback. So naturally, they came to visit the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit.
They asked:
“AITA for not letting a friend use my umbrella in a Japanese downpour?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“My friends and I went sightseeing, aware that the weather forecast was warning of heavy rain.”
“We’re from England, where the correct response to rain is to not acknowledge it, but things are a little different in Japan.”
“It is impossible to walk outside without getting fully soaked.”
“I warned my friends of this and stopped at a shop to buy an umbrella.”
“They were reluctant to get one; either underestimating the rain or thinking they could get one later, if it actually rained.”
“I warned them multiple times that if it rains, I would not let them borrow my umbrella.”
“One friend had a raincoat so was mostly fine but the other did not.”
“I reminded them that I would not share a few more times while we were walking.”
“Roughly an hour later, it started raining. Hard.”
“It was unlikely to stop raining any time soon and we had a train to catch so we walked in the rain for half an hour to the train station.”
“I stood by my word and refused to let them use my umbrella (which could easily fit 2 people under it).”
“When we arrived, the friend without the raincoat was completely soaked, and the other was far from dry.”
“Neither were particularly happy.”
“AITA for standing by my word and not saving my friend from the rain?”
Redditors shared their thoughts on this matter and weighed some options to the question AITA:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Many Redditors declared OP WAS the A**hole.
“You were way more concerned with being right than being a good friend. YTA.” ~ dppconfession9
“Yes – YTA. And I wouldn’t blame your ‘friend’ for ending the friendship.”
“That’s no way to treat a friend, even if they weren’t heeding your expert weather advice.”
“I could sort of understand if it meant you would get wet, but it was an opportunity for kindness, and clearly you preferred being smug.” ~ ObliviousOtterpaws
“Agreed! YTA – 5 min walking in heavy rain I might give you a pass even though by your own admission you had an umbrella that could easily fit 2 people.”
“Regardless of whether of they chose to purchase umbrellas earlier in the day you watched your ‘friends’ walk 30 minutes in a heavy downpour.”
“They were clearly miserable and soaking wet.”
“You placed your need to be right over your ‘friends’ well being.”
“Personally if I were in a similar situation and we reached the train I would have sat in a separate car and not spoken to you for the rest of the day.”
“I would also re-evaluate our ‘friendship.'”
“Yes I would have been wrong to not purchase the umbrella earlier in the day and you would have been right, that being said, you chose to watch me suffer in miserable conditions for 30 minutes to prove some stupid point.”
“Are we really friends?” ~ cartman624
“My friend did this to me once.”
“He pretended he didn’t have an umbrella for some reason and we had to walk half an hour in pouring monsoon rain.”
“I still hate him for this. YTA.” ~ Yangomato
“YTA.”
“Once your point is proven, there’s nothing more to gain from making your friends miserable for the remaining 28 minutes, you’re just being malicious.” ~ _9tail_
“YTA. Your friend got the point pretty quickly but you weren’t standing by your word.”
“You were revelling in a 30 minute long ‘I told you so.'”
“I hope your need to be right was worth the friendship because your friendship will never be the same.” ~ REDDIT
“YTA. This is an extremely petty case of ‘I told you so.'”
“They learned their lesson 3 minutes into being soaked.”
“You were just being an a** for rubbing it in and not helping them.” ~ Shirokuma247
“YTA, and your question isn’t accurate.”
“You didn’t need to let them borrow the umbrella, you just needed to let them squeeze into available space under it.”
“Also: do they not have cabs in Japan?”
“I can’t imagine walking through a downpour for half an hour even with an umbrella.” ~ hamhead
“ESH. Your friends sound like they were too tight to buy a brolly, and you were too big of a d**k to help them out.”
“You lot deserve each other.”
“You are a real AH man.”
“One of your (ex) mates got in touch with me.”
“You wouldn’t even let him buy a bloody brolly, you were too busy shuffling him out the frigging door from the place you were staying.”
“I hope you stub your toe every day for the rest of your life.”
“From your ex mate : Wasn’t that I couldn’t afford one, in fact I went and bought one the next day.”
“It was more they wouldn’t wait for me to get one at the place we were staying before leaving.” ~ REDDIT
“YTA. Malicious, petty and callous.”
“After the first minute you could easily have relented and let the one friend without anything get underneath until you found a shop selling another umbrella.”
“You’re so bloody minded you don’t deserve the friends you have.” ~ Pukit
“Agreed. Give them a good minute or two but after that help them.”
“They’re friends not enemies.”
“They might have been a good reason to not buy an umbrella, lack of funds, or just plain underestimated the rain.”
“A good way to look at life is ‘Am I doing this the right way, or the easy way?””
“You took the easy way out by being so stuck in your bitter emotions.” ~ Burnsyde
“While I love preparedness as much as the next person this is a crappy thing to do.”
“Your point was proven as soon as that downpour hit.”
“You had room under your umbrella and would lose literally nothing in the process of letting them stay as dry as they could. YTA.” ~ earthweed_nfire
A few Redditors had a different thought…
“Hello traveller! Your query reached me at the best of times, and at the worst of times.”
“The topic flashed up on my screen just as I was caught in a heavy downpour, not 300 feet from my front door.”
“Had I not gone out of my way to acquire some biscuits, I could have avoided the rain altogether.”
“Also, this downpour had been foretold all day.”
“I, however, am Swiss: those who know us – namely our neighbours in Europe – make fun of us for having a large stick lodged firmly up our behinds, and for being the tiniest bit over-prepared most of the time.”
“The laughter tends to stop, though, the moment someone needs a band-aid, a hand sanitiser, a Swiss army knife, or, indeed, an umbrella.”
“Because we carry that with us.”
“You, OP, are NTA.”
“You decided to be the one to carry that large umbrella, while your friends sauntered along, unburdened by both physical objects, and any sense of responsibility for their own bodily dryness.”
“Also, we both know there’s no such thing as a two-person umbrella: half of you would have been wet, as well as half of your friend.”
“So no, you have nothing to reproach yourself for.”
“They did not heed your warning, and you are not your friends’ keeper.”
“As a Swiss person, I salute you both for your foresight, and for your absolute neutrality when the inevitable happened.” ~ imaginaryhouseplant
“NTA your friends are idiots like most of the people in this thread.”
“The reason why people are saying YTA is because they see their dumba** self in your friends.”
“You got the umbrella and warned them multiple times you won’t share it.”
“They tried to be cheapskates and thought they can have their cake and eat it too.”
“NTA and everyone saying you are, is just a ditzy idiot.” ~ U-r-a-scrub
“NTA – it’s your umbrella, you can do whatever you want with it.”
“It’s like if you’re our to eat with them and you ask everyone if they want to get fries.”
“They say no.”
“You’re like ‘I’m fairly certain you guys are gonna want fries, and you can’t have mine.'”
“Then 10 min later they are shocked when you swat their hand away from your fries.” ~ Thatniqqarylan
“NTA. Most people are saying YTA but frankly people are not familiar nowadays with suffering the consequences of their actions.”
“It’s not your job to babysit or rescue anyone.”
“They are adults capable of making their own decisions.”
“Angry or not I’m sure they learned a valuable lesson that day!” ~ picopuff
“NTA. Grown adults who are warned repeatedly about the weather and have ample opportunity to mitigate the risks of the weather (i.e. getting wet) and fail to do so and expect someone else to take care of the problem are a**holes.”
“It is one thing if they brought it from home and the others didn’t have one and would have to buy one… but they bought it just before this and the others had the same opportunity to do so.
“It is rain. It is wet.”
“So they got wet for half an hour because they refused to be adults and prepare for the weather.”
“Lesson learned.” ~ necromantzer
Well OP, Reddit, for the most part, doesn’t seemed thrilled with your choice.
But it is your property.
Thankfully nobody got sick and you all arrived to your destination safely.