Hello, there.
Would it be alright if I shared my experience with the neighbors?
When I moved to the new house, I was thinking about starting Airbnb business, but I did not have concrete plans for that yet. When I sent some pictures of my house to some international friends of mine, they mentioned, "Oh! it is a very beautiful house and I will stay there definitely ."
I visited some of my neighbors with a gift to say hello and to tell about the plan of welcoming international friends: I said to them, "If you hear some noise from my house or see some troubles, let me know and I have to apologize."and they kindly replied, "Oh, the fault might be all ours. Never mind." : the old woman of the next door was nice to me at first, but she changed, even if I said hello, she ignored me with a sullen look.
One day I saw a man standing in front of the gate of the next door for hours and I heard they were speaking ill of me, so I joined the conversation: the man said to me angrily, "You didn't tell us about international visitors coming to your house and you didn't say hello to your neighbors. We feel uneasy having foreigners in our area. You should join our Residents' Assosiation but you ignored us." Accoriding to Japanese law, they should Not force us to join it, and I know it is nothing but a waste of time and the members are always whining about their neighbors for FUN. It is quite worthless, but the man, sub leader of that assosiation, forced me to go to the office and to join it and I had to pay 4400 JPY for the membership fee. I told them I greeted to my neighbors and told about the international visitors, but the man said, "No, you didn't do it. No, you didn't do it. If so, tell me the exact date you did it."quite repeatedly and rerentlessly, MORE THAN TEN TIMES. According to the law of our area, it is not hosts' duty to tell the neighbors about the Homestay Business. The old woman of the next door forced me to buy the new laundry poles that cost quite expensive, and she complained about my laundry space: she said to me "It looks quite dirty!"repeatedly and ruthlessly, MORE THAN 20 TIMES, in total, though none of my visitors complained about it.
It is my house, and it is quite offensive for the neighbors to peep into the private space.
I asked Airbnb staff about it, and they replied, "No, you don't have to buy them." I told the sub leader about it, and he mentioned,"Ah? Airbnb is nothing but a private company, so we do not trust it. You should ask prefectural office, and they are quite trustworthy. I am going to tell the prefectural office that you are making trouble with the neighbors and you will be desparate." He wrangled on, " You don't seem to be lawyer's daughter, for the lawyer is the respectful person. Only factory workers are staying at your house. When are you going to buy laundry poles You must do it. Tell me the exact date you will buy it." Almost all the visitors of my house are the researchers of university lab, engineers, teachers and martial artists, for there are some very famous universities around here and we have the world wide famous martial artist close to my house, however, if the visitors are the factory workers, who cares? I am not such a discriminant, and my father, grandfather and brother were lawyers: my aunt is a very successful lawyer and we can see her on TV., but I don't think only such titles tell they are respectful people or not. I called the prefectural office to ask if I should buy laundry poles and everything my neighbors forced me to buy, and they replied, "No, you do not have to, and you are not making troubles, because merely laundry thing is not the requirement for our supervise, but if your visitors throw the garbage away into your neighbors' houses, we will deal with it as one thinks fit. "
Everything happened here is because of their kind of xenophobic attitude of Japanese: some of the brain scientists insist that Japanese people are the most xenophoic in the world and try to unite and stick together as stupid Residents' Assocciation against foreign menace:menace that is nothing but their paranoid without any knowledge about international affairs, politics and foreign cultures, though most of the visitors of my house are doing fabulous with perfect politeness and so respectful. Moreover, many of my guests can speak three or more languages so fluently, but most Japanese can speak only Japanese, though people study English for more than ten years at school. That is one of the cause of misunderstanding and paranoid.