Having a Stalker in Japan

Today, I'll talk about the possibility of having a stalker while in Japan.

The Peculiar Neighbor

I thought about this topic today because where I am living now is quite strange. I currently live on the Shikoku island in Japan. It's.... Okay. But my apartment building is quite strange. It has attracted some interesting individuals. For instance, my downstairs neighbor. My husband believes he has some illness. In the US, we can it hoarding. He has put a bunch of things outside of his apartment, and near our building (not the trash) to throw away. I really don't care about any of that honestly. But I feel that he's a bit creepy.

When it Started

I started to think he was creepy when we first moved in. When we moved in, he came outside to smoke, we started to move in at around six at night. It was a little late, but nothing too crazy. I didn't see him the first time, but he spoke rudely to my husband. I thought, oh no, what have we gotten ourselves into. Afterwards, he saw me in the coming days, he didn't speak to my husband anymore. But he did something EVEN stranger. Whenever we would go outside, he would mysteriously be there... Smoking. Yes, WHENEVER we went outside. Not only that, when I would arrive home from work, he would be there as well.
I think since he is downstairs, that he would listen to us, and when it sounded like we were leaving to go somewhere. I know this because one day we were heading out the door, and I had opened the door. But I heard him open his door downstairs. I told my husband, and we waited about 15 minutes before leaving, he was gone. We didn't want to see him anymore. It had been about 3 months, and I was fed up. I especially didn't like him waiting outside when I arrived home alone. After that day, he rarely came out when we left, which I was elated about.

Someone's Watching

Fast forward to today, several months later, and I saw someone looking into my window. I was so scared. I wondered if for he would come up to look through our window because sometimes I smelled cigarettes. At the time, we didn't have any next-door neighbors. I also saw a cigarette butt next to our door. He's the only one that I know of that smokes. I don't know what to do about this problem. I do believe that he is a hoarder and a hikikimori (shut in). I hope I'm not murdered, that's all I can hope for.

Jane’s Stalker

I remember during my first job, at the Eikaiwa, Jane also had a stalker. She told me how she met him. She was walking to our apartment building after work. We lived only five minutes away from our job by foot. I think he stopped her, in the train station, in order to have a conversation with her. In order for us to get home from work, we had to go through the train station. I guess she was surprised that someone wanted to speak to her, considering Japanese people don’t usually stop people to talk, especially not to talk in English. So, they had a conversation, maybe he asked her where she was from, yada yada. I guess after that night, she saw him again…. At our APARTMENT BUILDING!! She guessed that he had watched her walk home after their conversation that night. She said that he wouldn’t let her go inside of the elevator. He WOULDN’T LET HER GO. She said that she told him that she was calling her boyfriend, and then he finally left. She told this to my coworker and me.

Was that the End?

Absolutely not! A few weeks later, after work, a middle-aged Japanese man approached me to ask me about someone from Chicago. He asked me if I knew a woman who was from Chicago who worked at another Eikaiwa in our building. I said absolutely not. I left quickly because I DID NOT want to be involved. I called her to let her know that some strange man asked me about her. She told me to COME BACK, so that we could walk home together. I did… When we walked through the train station again, HE WAS THERE…Waiting. He tried to speak to her, but we both just ignored him, and continued to walk home. I told Jane that she needed to tell our manager at the time, because honestly, I am not getting killed for her. He knew where we lived already. He knew what building we worked at…because she told him. I was not playing. She said no because she said he’s not going to do anything. I called BS. The next day, we told the manager about the incidents, and they went to file a police report. That was the last time I had seen him. Truthfully, I’m thinking of filing my own police report. I don’t want to be murdered by a psycho; it happens in Japan too. Unfortunately, though, it’s still safer than the US.