May 25, 2019
Annoying morning futon slapping noise. What time is OK?
There's a middle-aged guy, living in one of the apartments in the building across the street from me, who hangs out his futon between 7 - 8 am and then bangs the sh@*t out of them with one of those stupid plastic slapping devices. Honestly, I want to take it from him and slap him with it instead. Of course, I'll end up doing nothing of the sort, but I find this futon-slapping at that time so annoying and noisy and am astonished that he continues to do it despite his noise echoing down the whole street and him being the only person on the street to do so (at least at that sort of time). If he was in my building I might stick a note through his door or something, but I'm not sure about the protocol of doing that when the culprit is in a different building. I'm also wondering if the 7 - 8 am slot for futon-slapping is a perfectly acceptable one and actually it's me that needs the attitude adjustment. Thoughts?
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on May 25
I hate other people's noise invading my space. Ironically, even out here in the countryside, the houses are still packed pretty close together, so sound doesn't take much to travel. I've had the guy in house behind ours outside at all hours (crack of dawn/way past bedtime) doing everything from chopping firewood to hocking loogies outside so yeah - noise drives me batty. I do think that consideration is key. I'm mindful of noise early or late, but that's probably because back home there are laws in place that govern that kind of thing and you can call the police! No idea if there are laws here about times of day you can make noise (someone enlighten me if there are), but I can't help but feel that even if I did complain I'd just seem like the gaijin complaining about the way things are done here. I also wonder if it's the time of year? The sun is up so ridiculously early that he's probably been itching to slap those futons since 4.30am!!
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on May 26
That’s really annoying. You mean he does this on weekend mornings, or randomly all week? If the early morning futon slapped were in your own building, you could notify your landlord or building manager, but the culprit is in another building. I found a lot of information about industrial and construction noise regulations, but I don’t see anything specific about neighborhood noise regulation. I’m coping with two barky dogs that live across the canal and road from my building. They both cope poorly with being left alone, and bark all day. We’ve got a lot of bird life here, too, as there is a bird sanctuary nearby. The ducks duke it out late at night, and cranes and herons skronk over my building really late.
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on May 27
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on May 27
I'm guessing this started recently? As the weather gets more humid (without being rainy), it's a good habit to hang futon outside to prevent mites and mold. Kudos to this guy for actually doing so. But you have something to be happy about: the rainy season is coming. He won't be getting his futon near the balcony on rainy days. As for the time, almost everyone I've asked says they wake up before 7 if not around then. He's probably gotta get the chore done and be off to work. Maybe taking out his work aggression on his futon? Be grateful it's not any earlier. You could try stepping out onto your balcony and glaring at him, hahaha. Or saying good morning.
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on May 27
Thanks for the comments everyone! Actually, during the weekdays doesn't bother me that much. I recon back in the UK such noise would be cause for complaint but here in Japan, well, it's a noisy country so maybe it's just something to let slide. On a weekend though? I'm still thinking 7 - 8 is too early. Most weekends I'm out surfing anyway so I'm up way earlier (but very quiet when going about my preparations), but my wife (Japanese) is also annoyed about it. I did the glaring thing just the other Saturday but it was literally straight out of bed so I didn't have contacts in / glasses on so I had no idea if he noticed. Ha ha! I was thinking next time I might glare and get the phone out as if filming him or getting a picture ready to send out on social media! I think he's fairly new to the building as I haven't noticed it until recently and, yea, it's probably weather related so we'll certainly get some respite during rainy season. Anyway, as I said before, Japan (to my mind) is a noisy country so maybe this is just par for the course. Perhaps my wife will get annoyed enough to address the issue. (Yes, if in doubt, let the Japanese partner deal with it!)
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on May 28
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on Jul 1
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on Jul 3
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on Jul 3
@KevinC I know it!
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on Sep 30
10 Answers