Last night I hosted a small barbecue that was supposed to be the last real get-together of The League. It started out innocuously enough with a very small fire in the local park that was carefully coaxed into being over the course of about an hour (yeah it always takes us forever to get fires going). We cooked our food, then my neighbors came over to cook theirs.
Now, there were never more than four people at any one time at this fire. It was also contained in a barbecue grill that I have. Yet we must have ruffled someone's feathers by having too much fun (read: standing around and cooking quietly), because both the fire department and the police showed up within minutes of each other. Mind you, this was after we'd had a fire going for over an hour. It was uncomfortable but they were very courteous and we were asked not to do it at night.
Someone had apparently called in about it. It's really too bad that people can't be more accepting of even such a small step out of the norm. Spontaneity in Japan is dead.
Regardless, we had a good time and I am very thankful that both the FD and the PD were good-hearted about it. In fact, the police looked quite regretful to continue their patrol!