Just as the Golden Week is coming to an end and the first day of work is merely hours away, I got my first visit from a neighbor since coming to Japan. Apparently a family moved into the apartment directly below mine and they (a nice lady and her daughter) knocked on my door to introduce themselves and drop off a little present – a box of cookies. See, there is a Japanese tradition which states that a person moving to a new house/apartment should knock on the doors of their immediate neighbors (left, right and up and down in an apartment if they exist) and introduce themselves while offering a small gift for any troubles they may give to those neighbors in the future. I think this is a great tradition especially considering how isolated people are becoming recently. It is always a good thing to know (and hopefully care about) one’s neighbors. Unfortunately when I moved in I did not do this and I feel very guilty now. I need to find a way to make this right I think…
2 comments:
the cookies look so delicate! :)
just out of curiosity, were they surprised when they saw you -- a non-japanese -- living upstairs?
Actually not so much. They were more surprised when I could, kinda, respond :P
I still hope I did not scare them off though. I really was not wearing the nicest outfit and I had not shaved for a few days since it was a long holiday :P
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