crystal's capers

one girl's international adventures

Monday, September 12, 2005

Bring it, bitch!

So here's a funny story...

I live in a fourplex, called a Neo Palace. One whole side of our building is empty; below me lives a family consisting of mother, father, pre-teen son and baby. I have never heard a peep from my neighbours, other than the odd "Konnichi wa" (hello). We have had some rip-roaring parties here, and no comment.

Tressa, on the other hand, lives just down the block from me and has had a completely different experience with her neighbours. Her Neo Palace is full; two sets of neighbours having moved in in the last month. Since her arrival in Japan Tressa has been continually bullied by the long-term tenant above her. Keeping in mind that this tenant does nothing to decrease the thunder from above, she nonetheless feels it appropriate to boss Tressa around about so-called noise.

We learned early on that dinner parties and the like were a no-go at Tressa's, so we have them here... but the witch from above still finds reasons to scream at Tressa. She often makes demands (in Japanese) like, "Don't Watch Movies After 9:00pm!!" and "Don't Have One Person Over For Dinner!!" and "Don't Vacuum Day or Night!!" It really is absurd.

So yesterday, I'm chatting online with Tressa and she all-of-a-sudden disappears. I nudge her, no response. I phone her, no response (yes, I am a stalker!! haha - we were in the middle of a converstation, about boys no less!!) She FINALLY comes back online about 10 minutes later and is flabbergasted...

Turns out that the witch took the time to rally up some neighbours who saw Tressa loading a considerable amount of garbage (she had missed a garbage day, or two, or fourteen...) to the dump spot. Problem was that she was doing this the night before pickup. Oh the fury that was unleashed!! Not only did they not knock on Tressa's door, but a number of her neighbours marched right into her apartment, no warning, and started screaming at her in Japanese!! Okay, maybe this is appropriate here in Japan, I don't know for sure, but Tressa was, understandably, appauled.

For several minutes Tressa just looks at these shouting Japanese people in horror while they wave about frantically and accost her calendar... they then proceed to force her outside to the garbage spot where they tear open her bags and begin rooting around in their putrid contents, raving and screaming the whole damn time!! Tressa carefully declines fishing in her garbage when they gesture that she should be helping; god knows what they were even looking for! Finally, they pull out a light bulb and a pop can and call it a day. They insist that Tressa lug her bags of garbage back to her apartment (because they smell so good in the entrance way for the whole building!) and return them to the garbage spot the next morning (keeping in mind that the trucks come by anytime between 5:30am and noon). Shocked, distraught and furious, Tressa tells me she would like to move.

3 Comments:

    • At 6:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      perhaps tressa could move into your building?

       
    • At 5:32 PM, Blogger cupcakes said…

      Wow,sounds like she really needs to move especially now that the lady upstaira has the whole building against her now. Craziness!!

       
    • At 12:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      Hi all! Thanks for your comments. So here's the backstory on the moving business:

      Although Tressa is considering asking our boss if she can move, the chances of it happening are highly unlikely. First, our apartments are subsidized through our work and as such, we are contracted to live in them (so that they don't have to find another apartment and move all the furniture around after we leave the company). This is to our benefit too because we pay a fixed amount for rent even if it is increased (which, for Tressa's apartment means that the company pays about $85/month over what she pays).

      Second, Japan has really bizarre rental policies; not only do you have to provide a whole months' rent upfront as a damage deposit, you also have to provide a full months' rent upfront as what's called "gift money" (insert, bribe) for the landlord to let you rent the place. Not to mention that most places require that you pay 6 months rent in advance in leiu of a lease. So, unless Tressa was willing to foot those bills in advance and has money coming out the wazoo (which she does not) she is pretty much stuck here.

      Crystal

       
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