Notes

Yumi

So I just wanted to let you know before you hear from anyone else, because I know some people complained about me in the past, and the stuff they said wasn’t true. Yes I did bring my gf over here but what “they” told you wasn’t the truth. Honestly, I’m just going to give it straight up to you. I don’t like them and they don’t like me. And you know what? I chose your guest house because of the number of foreigners around. People I know from a couple of years ago stayed at your place so they told me about it. And yes, I do speak Japanese but I had so many bad experiences that I avoid speaking it like hell. Especially at home where I just want to get some work done and chill, and speaking a language that I’m not confident enough to, isn’t very relaxing if you ask me. Anyway, all this ranting is to let you know that yes, I don’t socialize with the Japanese speakers here.

Thing is, tonight I snapped at one of them. I don’t know his name, one of the short Japanese guys who sleeps next to my room. I think it’s 504. There is two of them in that room. I don’t know their names anyway.

So I came back with Stephanie cause we were going to have dinner together. Living room was sort of crowded. This Japanese guy was watching TV while I was chopping some veggies and I decided to play some music from my phone since the only sound we had was from the TV. And he was the only person watching it. But more importantly, I need to point out how rude those Japanese guys are. When Ryan was still around I used to stay in the living room with him more than just for cooking and eating. We would sometimes watch something on Youtube or just generally watch something on the computer. We don’t watch Japanese TV, for obvious reasons. He or his roommate would come in, like late at night and just turn on the TV super loud, without even caring if we would still hear what we were watching. We never said a word to him or any of the other guys who usually watch Japanese tv. I don’t know their names, not really interested either to be honest. However, when they were watching TV in the living room, we would never play any videos out of respect for them, while they were watching tv. And even if we did, we would use our earphones. Period.

As I was saying I hooked up my iPhone to the speakers and started playing some radio from an app I have, relatively normal audio sound, not too loud not too low. Ambience music. At this point he was outside smoking…I kept on chopping my stuff to cook my meal. A couple of minutes later after he’s back I noticed that my music had stopped. I went to check on it and asked the Indian guy using the computer what happened, he told me the Japanese guy had paused it. I was pretty pissed at this point already but I didn’t say anything, I just pressed play again and that’s it. And that’s when he looks back at me with a face that reads “hey do you mind, I’m trying to watch some TV over here?” while pointing at the TV with both hands. Oh I lost my shit, rude as he is and he has the balls to ask me to turn off my music so he can watch his loud TV show, while everyone else is trying to talk and chill in the living room. I kinda understand why they act that way tho, they’re Japanese, they’ve lived here for longer than anyone else, so they kinda feel entitled to it, like this place belongs to them or something. But anyway, I snapped at him as I said, I never said anything to them in the past but the way he looked at me like he’s somehow better than us and deserves better treatment maybe because he’s been living here for longer than me…I yelled at him “this is a living room, it’s a public space, if you don’t like it then go to your room, where no one is going to bother you, oh and by the way, don’t you dare and touch my phone again or we will have a problem”.

It’s nothing for me, and I’m not filing a formal complaint or anything. I don’t really care about this and it doesn’t bother me at all. I’m used to their lack of awareness around other people, it doesn’t justify it anyway. They’re just self-centered, egotistical people. I just want to give you a heads up before you hear from anyone else and before they twist the story like they did before. So there you have it, that’s what happened. And please correct me if I’m wrong, but the living room is a public space, music, laptops, tablets, phones, etc…all those things are allowed there as far as I’m concerned. Please let me know if there are any rules regarding the use of any devices in the living room. Sometimes you will hear sound or music from three different people in the living room, no one ever complains to anyone because it is what it is. It’s a shared area for Christ’s sake.

Other examples like, you’re sitting around the table talking to other people and they come in, their phones ringing, then they will put the other person they’re talking to on speaker and put their phones on the table while they chat with their friends or whoever that is. I could go on and on, how they they have poor social skills and don’t really care about the other people around them but I’m guessing you already have an idea...

Anyway, sorry for the long email.

Richard