
Even Japanese hospitality has its limits.
Freedom and peace and quiet are definite upsides to living by yourself, but it can get a little lonely coming back to an empty house or apartment every night. At the end of the day, it really is nice having someone waiting for you at home.
Of course, the situation is a lot less heartwarming when the person keeping your bed warm is a total stranger.
On the night of February 22, a 24-year-old man living in the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, went out to get something to eat for dinner. He left his apartment around 9 p.m., ate some chow, and came back around three hours later. When he tried to open his door, though, he was surprised to find it was locked, which was strange because he hadn’t locked it when he went out.
He hadn’t even bothered to take a key with him, so he had to contact the building manager to let him back into his apartment. By this time it was around midnight, but getting some shut-eye turned out to be out of the question, since the man discovered there was another man, whom he’d never met, sleeping in his bed.
Rather than nudge the stranger over to make room under the covers, the resident ran back outside and called the police so that they could handle waking him up. When they did, they learned that he was a 49-year-old man with no fixed address or employment. “I didn’t have anywhere else to sleep,” he explained, “so I went around looking for an apartment with an unlocked door.” In a way, it’s as logical an explanation as “I watched that crocodile video because I like crocodiles,” but he was still arrested on trespassing charges.
It’s unclear whether the 49-year-old locked the door after gaining entrance out of habit, as an attempt to keep the apartment’s rightful occupant out, or simply because he knew better than anyone that an unlocked door can lead to uninvited guests.
Source: Kobe Shimbun Next via Yahoo! Japan News via Otakomu
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
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