We stayed at the Conrad Tokyo on our last two nights in Japan, which happens to be one of my favorite Conrads (more on that later). On the night before our departure my sister and I were rudely awaken by insanely loud knocking on the door.
My heart was already racing from having woken up from REM sleep and my mind was calculating what my next steps should be. I waited for a minute thinking it was probably someone accidentally trying to open the wrong room or something. However, I wasn’t quite sure because our parents weren’t in a room nearby and they certainly could be the ones trying to reach us.
I picked up my phone and looked for any messages. There were absolutely none. So upon the second loud knock, I was tempted to go take peek and see who it was at the door. But before I could get out of my bed, a loud banging of the door started along with some yelling in a very foreign language (it wasn’t Japanese for sure).
Given the age we live in, my sister was absolutely terrified at what was going on. She immediately went and hid behind my bed. By this time, it sounded like whoever was at the door was going to almost break it down. I thought about barricading the door with whatever I could find in the room and hiding in the bathroom. I could still hear the yelling in the foreign language at an even higher level now. Just so you know: I don’t want to make wild conjectures on what the language was, I really didn’t know.
Anyway, I was still trying to process what was going on and managed to get my wits together to pick up the phone. Thankfully as soon as I pressed the “reception” button, the call connected to the front desk. I started to explain my predicament to them, but I don’t really think this was necessary given how loud the noise level was outside my door. The gentleman on the other end profusely apologized and told me that hotel security was being sent up immediately and to try to go back to sleep.
I put down the phone and explained to my sister that it was going to be alright. The receptionist’s reassurance certainly put me at ease over the door to a certain degree. Within a matter of minutes, the loud banging on the door stopped and everything went quiet. I barely heard the the person being led off or disciplined for the midnight uproar. I’ve got to say they certainly know how to quiet things down 🙂
Anyway despite the incident being squared away in a matter of 15 minutes, they were still some of the scariest moments of my times in a hotel room. I somehow managed to go back to sleep, but my sister ended up being a little shaken by the incident. I don’t blame her given that for a good 12 minutes, it sounded like someone was going to break down the door and assault
After this incident I certainly check an extra number of times whether my door has been bolted or my phone is fully charged. It certainly forced me to take a few more safety measures. As for barricading the room, I think that’s just a silly idea given that it would just make it hard for us to leave in case there was a fire.
The next morning the reception told us that it was just a drunk man that caused the racket. Apparently the poor guy was trying to open what he thought was his room’s door and yelling out in frustration because the key wasn’t working.
Have you had anything similar happen to you? What was your reaction?
Japan Trip Report Index:
United Business Class DFW – IAH
United Polaris Houston – Tokyo (Narita)
Narita Express (Narita – Tokyo Station)
Focal Point: Tokyo in the Rain
