We heard someone banging at our door and screaming outside at 9:30pm. Not taking any chances we opened the window to talk to the person to see what he wanted. It was out neighbor saying we were making “boom boom boom,” sounds again. I was cleaning our cat’s litter box (not sure how much noise you can make with cat litter, cat poop and a tiny scooper.) My wife was upstairs working on her computer. No one was moving around the house when he showed up. He was rambling and very incoherent. He threaten to call the cops on us right away. Eventually with a lot of apologizing and listening to him rant, he calmed down and thanked us in Korean. (We are not Korean.)
After 20 minutes 2 police officers showed up (so he still ended up calling the police on us.) The police came into our house and took quick glance and saw nothing suspicious. In fact they seem very sorry for bothering us. They asked if the neighbors had ever complained in person before and we said this was only the second time he has done so. The first time being when we first moved in 9 months ago.
They gave us a very soft warning and left (again, they seem very apologetic for intruding our home.)
My wife and I have always tried to be respectful about living here in Japan. We don’t have parties and we don’t vacuum or wash our clothing after 9pm. Our Japanese neighbors to the left seem to like us very much. She would often drop off food and treats and we would do the same. Our neighbors to the right complained to us 2 days after we moved in, parked their bike partially in front of our house (we never confronted them about that.) They also have screaming matches with often followed by a young man storming out of the house.
Our staircase is actually close to the opposite side of the neighbor who complained, so I really have no idea what he is hearing. My theory is we sometime have wild cats running on our rooftops and they do make boom boom boom sounds. I am not sure if that is what our neighbor is hearing.
Anyhow, I hope you all stay safe, I’ve never had the cops called on me, so I thought I shared my first experience with you guys here. Thank you for reading.
4 comments
Kamsamnida. Please keep as quiet as you can during the kimchi prep.
Next time he says something in Korean respond in swahili
Sounds as though you’re doing fine. The police seem to have been reasonable. The neighbor, though, not so. How are laws about recording, for when they have these shouting matches?
I always wanted to know:
Did the cops take off their shoes when they came in your house?
I always imagine these uniformed police officers in cute little hello kitty slippers, writing in their notebook seriously.