I was discussing in front of my hotel at night with a friend through the phone, because we are 7 hours apart and he couldn’t call me earlier.
So I went out to not bother the other people in my room since it’s a dormitory.
I was speaking in a normal tone since I wasn’t drunk or anything, but someone only wearing his shirt and his underwear came at me angrily. The moment I had caught a glimpse of what he had in his hands, I ran to the hotel and prayed that the automatic door would open fast enough.
He didn’t dare to enter the lobby, but he was walking around and was giving me the hush sign.
I was discussing the best I could with the entrance lady who was assuring me I should have stayed inside. But frankly, I am astonished someone would pick on strangers simply because they are discussing on the street below.
He didn’t make any noise approaching me and I am pretty relieved I did notice him. But all in the end, should I warn the police that someone might run at people with a bat at this neighborhood ?
It’s Tabist Hiromas Hotel Kotobuki By the way.
24 comments
It sounds like you were being loud? Maybe you didn’t realize how loud you were being and you were disturbing people. I wouldn’t bother reporting anything, since they probably won’t look into this.
Buildings in Japan generally have bad insulation and are not very soundproof, coupled that with the cultural expectation that one should not be bothersome to other people under any circumstance, what you get then is the crazy dude coming after you with a bat because he thought you had committed the cardinal sin of waking him up late at night. It’s actually not an uncommon occurrence-there are plenty of posts on r/japanlife about locals going bananas on foreigners they perceive to be too loud.
In a former life, I was a frequently drunk 20 something, and people just opened their window and yelled at us like normal people if we were being too loud. I don’t think a baseball bat is necessary!! Don’t know what the police would really do. Maybe from his perspective, he wasn’t used to foreigners and took the bat just because he was afraid you might react negatively or maybe he has had bad experiences with foreigners… just to give him the benefit of the doubt. I would just try to laugh it off and find a louder place to talk next time
Lol.
I’m gonna take a shot here and guess this was in Osaka?
Lmao
Probably youre being too touristy and disrespectful (noisy af)
This is hilarious. In Japan, it’s considered rude to yack on your phone in public. Have you not noticed the complete absence of people talking on their phone in the subway, any public space, etc? Yeah the police aren’t going to care, they’ll be more concerned about your rude behavior.
Rude AF. Normal tone at night might as well be yelling…in Japan.
Sorry you had to go through that OP.
What’s with all the comments backing someone who physically threatened another person with a baseball bat? I get that Japan has different cultural norms and *maybe* OP was being somewhat of a public nuisance, but the amount of victim blaming here is kinda insane. If OP had gotten severely hurt or killed, would you still be defending the assailant?
Seems your hotel dorm is in Taito ward, It’s home to a lot of lower income laborers and establishments that come with that. You were probably talking too loudly and annoyed somebody that has to be up at 5am for work in the morning.
you must be american. they are loud as fuck. it’s like you are in their conversation if there are 2 of them at the other end of the street
Western normal voice = yelling by Japanese standards.
It’s pretty residential over there and likely dead silent at night.
Loud american disrespects Japanese night rest, gets what’s coming to him and has the audacity to complain about it. What’s new? You really are an arrogant folk. Go discus in your room. Downvote me all you like, you’re being the assholes for being so obnoxious in a foreign country, disrespecting local communities. Just stay in your loud ass-countries.
It’s the oldest incantation in the book. Speak loudly on phone summon half naked salary man with baseball bat
Lol at the apologists excusing the psycho with the baseball bat so that they can appear more cultured or worldly. Sorry that happened to you, crazy people are everywhere.
Last samurais in the comment section defending violent behaviour because OP might have been a little loud. State of you Gaijins.
Just to throw this out there. If someone was right outside my house talking in a foreign language and it woke me up, i might grab a weapon just to make sure i’m not about to be robbed or something seeing as it’s the dead of night and there’s some randomer outside my house (especially if he was talking in a hushed tone).
Well I read most of your answers so I am going to do some large answer. Well I still don’t know if I should warn the police about it but I’m rather leaning on the side of denouncing that guy.
To be honest, that is the first time I’m travelling alone. On top of that, I was living in the countryside and it’s also my first time living in the city for a long period of time.
But I really didn’t expect the walls to be that bad. And I am ready to admit that I might have been too loud since I had earplugs on me and wouldn’t be noticing my own speaking tone in that case. Though that’s really weird since I was right at the entrance of my hostel and none of the other residents got woken up in the night. As I think myself too, it’s true that westerners are usually considered loud on the other hand. And that’s why they usually don’t wake up through noisy nights.
I think in France, whenever you are living next to an hotel and even acknowledging the barrier language, you would simply hurls insults at the noisy person. Furthermore, could have the police to get your buttocks. That’s it.
The underwear guy running with a bat is a thing that could happen in the country where my parents came from. But it’s literally Southeast Asia and I’m just shocked that someone could behave like it’s the dampest place of the world.
I am gonna utter this thing quite clear that I experience quite some specks of racism from Japanese culture. I have been refused at a hairdressing salon before entering or some people were fleeing when I was about to ask for some directions. But I would remind you that there were wonderful people too and I’m glad that open-minded people in Japan exist across all ages.
For example, I went into a fabulous teishoku restaurant where the old lady was in the middle of cooking for other clients but was still trying to attend to my needs. I genuinely thought she was formidable. It’s in shinjuku by the way and you can ask me if you want.
Such thing was to be expected in a country with 120million people. There are good and rotten apples just like everywhere else. But I would like simply some people to reconsider what would it be like to have a relative, travelling alone at the other side of the world, being threatened with a weapon as dangerous as a knife during the night. I don’t think that’s an appropriate answer in any country. As such, It’s something I would never tell my family or they would have a collective heart attack.
That’s why I’m glad to have sorted it out in my head and got it out of my chest for a moment. I would also give my thanks to the people who actually think it was a rude behavior and took a bit of my side. Since I would treat my equal as I would treat myself.
On the Shinkansen recently, I thought I was listening to my chess video through my AirPods, but apparently they hadn’t connected, and the audio was playing through the iPhone speakers.
I guess I should thank my lucky stars that my seat neighbor non-violently indicated the problem.
He probably just wanted to play baseball with you
per chance was his name was Majima-san? /s
(Crazy people are everywhere, do stay safe!)
He should have just called the police on you.
Sorry to hear this happened to you friend.
Unfortunately, Reddit Japanophiles will imagine this is an acceptable and proportionate response. They’d genuinely approve of beheadings if a tourist is talking 0.2dB louder than is allowed on a train.