Smoking Neighbors
September 15th, 2009
Over the summer, Sachi and I have again been subjected to neighbors smoking. With reasonable temperatures out there, we like to leave the balcony window open and get some fresh air into the apartment. The problem is, the wind comes in from the north, and the neighbor immediately to our north frequently comes out onto his balcony to smoke. Closing our balcony door when he starts is no solution; by then, the stink has permeated our apartment, and it’s too late. We’d ask him to stop, but we’re pretty sure that he wouldn’t.
And when you think about it, what he’s doing is kind of asinine. The reason he goes out onto his balcony to smoke is so he does not stink up his apartment. So instead, he stinks up ours. How nice.
Do it the Japanese way – ask someone else (preferably the house manager or sth) to ask the neighbour to stop it. Asking the neighbour would be rude, but going the roundabout way is more japolite 😉
I guess I’ll try… but frankly, I strongly doubt it’ll come to anything. I just have too much history with asking smokers to please smoke considerately, and I can sincerely and honestly say that I bend over backwards trying to be polite when I do so. A lot of smokers are considerate, but in my experience, if they’re not considerate on their own already, they tend not to react well to requests, no matter how politely phrased.
I suspect that he would rather avoid his wife’s anger and risk yours than the other way around, which is probably why he’s smoking out on his balcony in the first place!