So my friend ZH and I noticed this rooftop and thought we'd head up. It's not super tall but in a decent locaton and surrounded by all the city lights.
We rooftopped it twice but got complacent on the second ascent....
I was sitting on the edge watching the taxis pull up and the general busy night life of Osaka. Cities in Japan never sleep, there are 127 million people who live in Japan so there are people around constantly.
~
ZH brings it to my attention that there is a man on the rooftop with us. Fook. I follow his arm and see a man staring directly at us speaking into his walkie-talkie.
He beckons us and we head down to the lower level.
He isn't security but a maintenance worker and is so confused by us there. He speaks no English and us little Japanese.
He asks us to follow him downstairs. He isn't angry just perplexed by us and we oblige him.
Looking back I kind of wish we'd just bailed from our access point but from previous busts it's normally better to comply. So we head down with the worker to the basement where we meet two security guards who are just as bamboozled as the maintenance guy. They've awoken their boss who was sleeping downstairs and will be joining us shortly.
Their boss appears looking sleepy and doesn't engage with us. They ask us to wait and I ask if they've called the police. Annoying there are two words police officer in Japanese and they would avoid my gaze and be ambigious about whether or not the police had been called.
I honestly was beginning to get nervous as I'd just accepted a job in Japan and didn't want to get [worst case scenarios running through my head] deported. I highly doubted it but still...
They ask us to show them how we'd access the roof and we show them. We then wait and I wish we'd just apologized and walked away at that point.
Half an hour later four police offcers appear with expressions ranging between confused and annoyed. They question the security officers and ask for our IDs.
They don't speak confident English and one google translates this on his phone - Did you know it was wrong to the climb on to the roof?
I stare at the phone - of course I know it's wrong to climb the rooftop. I blag it and say I now know it was wrong to be on the rooftop.
They decide to walk us to the police station where they talk to us further. They get an English speaking translator on the phone and I talked with them for half an hour.
After talking back and forth they ask when I'm leaving the country. err.....
At this point they are assuming I'm on a tourist visa - which requires proof of on-wards travel.
ZH is on a tourist visa and is leaving in a week.
They ask when I'm returning home.
I say that I'm not going home and say that I'm going to NZ next.
They ask when and I say I don't have a flight.
At that point the commanding officer realises that I'm not a normal tourist. I can see him mulling this new information over in his head.
He then suddenly flings his hands at us and says Done! Fini! Go!
What? We can go? I begin, then stand up, I don't need telling twice and out we walk amazed by our stupid luck.
I did notice the crane opposite but it was locked tight with 24h workers, even on Christmas day.
We rooftopped it twice but got complacent on the second ascent....
I was sitting on the edge watching the taxis pull up and the general busy night life of Osaka. Cities in Japan never sleep, there are 127 million people who live in Japan so there are people around constantly.
~
ZH brings it to my attention that there is a man on the rooftop with us. Fook. I follow his arm and see a man staring directly at us speaking into his walkie-talkie.
He beckons us and we head down to the lower level.
He isn't security but a maintenance worker and is so confused by us there. He speaks no English and us little Japanese.
He asks us to follow him downstairs. He isn't angry just perplexed by us and we oblige him.
Looking back I kind of wish we'd just bailed from our access point but from previous busts it's normally better to comply. So we head down with the worker to the basement where we meet two security guards who are just as bamboozled as the maintenance guy. They've awoken their boss who was sleeping downstairs and will be joining us shortly.
Their boss appears looking sleepy and doesn't engage with us. They ask us to wait and I ask if they've called the police. Annoying there are two words police officer in Japanese and they would avoid my gaze and be ambigious about whether or not the police had been called.
I honestly was beginning to get nervous as I'd just accepted a job in Japan and didn't want to get [worst case scenarios running through my head] deported. I highly doubted it but still...
They ask us to show them how we'd access the roof and we show them. We then wait and I wish we'd just apologized and walked away at that point.
Half an hour later four police offcers appear with expressions ranging between confused and annoyed. They question the security officers and ask for our IDs.
They don't speak confident English and one google translates this on his phone - Did you know it was wrong to the climb on to the roof?
I stare at the phone - of course I know it's wrong to climb the rooftop. I blag it and say I now know it was wrong to be on the rooftop.
They decide to walk us to the police station where they talk to us further. They get an English speaking translator on the phone and I talked with them for half an hour.
After talking back and forth they ask when I'm leaving the country. err.....
At this point they are assuming I'm on a tourist visa - which requires proof of on-wards travel.
ZH is on a tourist visa and is leaving in a week.
They ask when I'm returning home.
I say that I'm not going home and say that I'm going to NZ next.
They ask when and I say I don't have a flight.
At that point the commanding officer realises that I'm not a normal tourist. I can see him mulling this new information over in his head.
He then suddenly flings his hands at us and says Done! Fini! Go!
What? We can go? I begin, then stand up, I don't need telling twice and out we walk amazed by our stupid luck.
I did notice the crane opposite but it was locked tight with 24h workers, even on Christmas day.
