The Scare

Okay, so here's the story which I think is my favorite story to tell about my stay here in Japan.  Be warned; this story is best told than read, so continue reading at your own discretion 

It started off with me texting back and forth with Matt as I was returning from Kawaguchi (3pm).  Our conversation basically ended with him saying he'll have curry ready when I got back home just as soon as he did a quick run to the store for some bread.  With that said, I thought nothing more of it and returned home (6pm).

Oddly enough though, when I got back to our apartment (and this was maybe three hours after I had been texting him) the door was locked.  I didn't think much of it, perhaps he had put off going to the grocery store until later in the afternoon, and he had just popped out.  So I just went down to our apartment common area to wait for his return, so I could get into our room.  As I was waiting in the common area, Sebastian came in and as soon as he saw me, said in his French-Canadian accent, "Did you know the police had gone to your apartment today?"

Apparently, another one of our neighbors had heard the police knocking around and asking for the people who lived in room 2-something or another.  All Sebastian gathered was that they were looking for a tenant who had just recently moved into the apartment, which left it to either me and Matt or the Koreans.  I was hoping it was the Koreans.

This seriously worried me.  For the next half-hour, worse case scenarios began to play through my head.  Maybe we had managed to do something illegal in the country, and the government would deport us?  The guys in the lounge didn't really help to allay my fears.  The consensus amongst them was that Matt was probably taken in to the police station.  What didn't help was that Matt hadn't been answering my calls or texts to him.  Charlie guessed that Matt may have gotten into trouble during one of his trips to the maid cafe.  Sebastian's theory was that he had gotten into a fight with someone.  I was worried about telling our manager about it since police involvement could affect our contract.  By this time, it was around 8pm, and Sebastian offered me fixings to make a sandwich.

With all this waiting around, Sebastian and Charlie decided to try and let me into my room by picking the lock.  They went at this for a good half hour or so until Carl, the manager, came up and told them to "Let a professional hand it."  Carl then proceeded to take the door off its hinges.  By no means was this an easy feat.  He worked on it for a good forty-five minutes with Eiji, our next door neighbor, nervously looking on.  Carl swore everyone to secrecy about taking the hinges off our door and somewhat causing it noticeable cosmetic damage.

At this point we told Carl about the police coming over and that missing Matt was probably in police custody for reasons unknown.  Upon hearing this, Carl simply shrugged it off saying he had had run-ins with the police before and it could be over something as petty as saying something while drunk, but gave his own crazy theory that Matt was probably in to little boys.  Around this time, Matt finally texted me back with a message of "I'm at the police... I'll be back soon I think.  Already been 4 hours about."  Upon receiving this, I immediately told the guys in the lounge, and once again theories began to fly.

Finally, an hour later (9:30pm), I get a call from Matt saying he's gonna be dropped off at the station and would be walking home from there.  However all evening, it was pouring rain, so I asked Carl to if he could give me a ride to the station in his car, and he happily obliged.  Just before we left the apartment, Eiji came out and asked me if either me or Matt had anything for dinner yet, which for Matt, was nothing.  So Eiji offered to make us curry while I went out to get Matt with Carl.

In the end, the whole police business was over nothing.  Matt, being the cheap man that he is, had taken one of the bikes that had been left at the apartment building and asked the police where he could find free parking for the bike.  When asked to provide registration for the bike, Matt couldn't provide any since it was borrowed, and when it police looked it up, the bike had been reported stolen two years ago.  All this caused an investigation, with fingerprints and mugshot, that lasted for a good five hours.

For me, though, that night showed me how awesome my neighbors were: providing me with something to eat when I was hungry; attempting to break into my room; taking off the door to let me in; preparing dinner for me and my roommate; and giving us a ride when we needed it.  This was above and beyond the call for me, and I am so grateful to have them around.