2 ms·
It's a societal issue. I've moved around the world and every place I lived is filled with noise. Then I moved to Tokyo, by far the biggest metropolis I've ever
by armada651 2y ago
It's a societal issue. I've moved around the world and every place I lived is filled with noise. Then I moved to Tokyo, by far the biggest metropolis I've ever lived in, and yet I've never lived in a place this quiet.
The first time I met my upstairs neighbor he apologized for the fact he has two kids who will sometimes run through the apartment banging their feet on the floor. I told him that I never even noticed that. There's clearly more of an awareness here that you shouldn't bother your neighbors with noise.
Of course not every place here is going to be like that, there's going to be plenty of noisy areas in a metropolis like Tokyo. But you don't have to move out into the wilderness just for some peace and quiet if we're all just a bit more considerate of our neighbors.
Though nature doesn't care about the rules, so there is one source of noise I'll have to get used to: the deafening noise of cicadas in summer.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoIs it unpatriotic, as an American, to envy the way the Japanese do things? I was stationed in Japan and really miss it. We could learn a lot.
- johnny22 2y agoI guess it depends on your definition of patriotism. I wouldn't use the word "envy" here though. My perception of what what is patriotic is that we borrow what is most useful from the places our citizens come from.
- dgunay 2y agoAbsolutely not. I find it more unpatriotic when people say things like "we can't have that/do that here" as if the Japanese are an advanced alien race. It especially peeves me when they take this attitude with anything technological. America can do anything, when it gets out of its own way.
- throwaway458345 2y agoregarding Japan, does this still hold up nowadays with the newer generations raised on american pop culture?
- armada651 2y agoMy rental contract has specific rules about what types of noise I'm allowed to make and between what times. No parties after 10PM and practicing instruments in my apartment is banned altogether. This isn't something that's enforced just by popular culture.
- 31carmichael 2y agoThe construction in Japan also takes noise into account. My neighbor in a small Japan apartment had an incredibly loud home theater system, and I never heard his movies from my unit. I think the walls were concrete, and on both sides, there was drywall with spacers which provided a small air-gap. I only ever heard him when he was having sex with his girlfriend and both of our balcony doors were open.
- soco 2y agoAlthough there's no Swiss law forbidding you to flush your toilet after 22:00, the local custom is not to, and even many rental contracts write down in strong terms the quiet times and what you cannot do during them - no mowing around lunch and on Sundays, no showers at 3am, and the list goes on, with the same point: do not bother your neighbours. Also don't let your car engine running!