Job Discussion Forums

[maryknight]

the noise in mexico is getting to me and i'm thinking of trying japan next. does that make sense?

[lalalateda]

I've never been to Mexico but in my opinion, Japan is rather noisy. I live in a small town and at first I was really surprised by all the noise. There are always trucks going around with recorded advertisements and stupid music playing outside stores in down town. I'm sure the big cities must be really bad.

[shuize]

Ah, you haven't experienced noise until you've lived in small town Japan -- directly underneath the local loud speaker.

I remember the lame pitch the local board of education gave me: "But this is very useful since it will help you wake up in the mornings."

Yes, indeed. Thanks to that experience I now have a better appreciation for what it must have been like to live in Maoist China. Wake up siren at 6:00 am seven days a week. Followed by 10 minutes of exercise music (also seven days a week) at 6:30 am just in case you thought of sleeping in a little on Sunday. Not to mention frequent announcements about various useless information throughout the day.

And if that doesn't drive you cookoo, the elderly men, who naturally don't want to let the day get away from them (having been up since 3:00 am), all running their industrial strength weed-wackers around 7:00 am (although I was personally lucky enough to experience this as early as 5:00 am from time to time in the summer) just might.

Of course, it's not just the men. Not to be outdone, old women would also come around soliciting for some cause or another at all hours of the morning, too. In rural Japan, you see, nobody ever locks their doors. So when someone wants to visit you at 5:00 am, they just walk right in. Unless the door is locked that is. But who would ever do that, right?

Country Hick: (Pulling on door) "What's this? I've pulled on the door and yet it will not open. How very odd. Maybe this big, metalic door is stuck. Let me rattle it for a few minutes."

Me (in bed): "Jesus Christ. It's 5:00 am."

Country Hick (rattling the door): "Surely they can't still be sleeping. It's already 5:00 am. Let me rattle it a little bit longer."

Me: (still in bed) "What the f*ck is wrong with these people?"

Surprisingly, I lasted much longer than I thought I would. But I now live next to a freeway and I can say, in all honesty, I sleep much better.

[Brooks]

I thought Japan would be quiet. Nope.
It can be noisy.
I live near Atsugi and I get to hear the planes all the time.
I would be glad if the Americans left Atsugi and flew away.
Still, I would have to listen to the Japanese planes.

Right wing trucks drive around on the weekend, blaring their patriotic songs.

Junk collectors drive around, seeking recycled items. They play a tape with the same recorded message, over and over.

And my city government has a truck which drives around telling if someone has been missing and when that person is found.
The same truck reminds people to vote on election day.

And at train stations, stupid politicians give speeches before 8:00 a.m., and the commuters don`t care, and just run to get the next train.

And good old bosozoku ride around late at night.

And some vending machines talk, and thank you for your purchase.

I used to have noisy neighbors. The kids cried every day and their father would leave for work at 4:00 a.m. to deliver newspapers.
And I saw the mother one day walking around with her kids, and thought,
Well, she got fat...Uh, she`s pregnant! Two noisy kids isn`t enough, huh?
Not long after that I moved away.

[abufletcher]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "noise in Mexico." If by Mexico you're talking about DF, then sure, but in two years of living in Guadalajara I never thought of Mexico as a particularly "noisy" place. I wouldn't describe my wife's village in Sinaloa as very noisy either. Wouldn't this all depend (in Mexico as in Japan as in anywhere) on the particular place you happen to be living? I knew people in the Middle East who had the misfortune of living right next to a mosque and getting to hear prayer call 5 times a day through the loud speakers -- sort of like Shuize's experience (great post BTW ).

I will say that the noise-level of many Japanese shopping centers can be ear-splitting with employees shouting "Irrashai!" and several loud product promo VCR displays blaring along with the English or Latin muzak.

But in my particular small town it's often deafeningly quite.

[madeira]

I spent Christmas in Taxco once. THAT was a noisy place!

Feral dogs howling and fighting... church bells clanging all night... we were close to a lively disco... and no ear plugs to be bought.

Beautiful place, though. I had fun, even though my friends all went down with tourista for the entire week.

[bshabu]

I have lived in a town as small as 15,000 and the large one of Osaka. It is strange but I got more sleep in Osaka. The small towns do have their "morning wake up call". I also live near a elementary school. Which had practice early each day on the weekend. Also drive-by shootings from the politicians and laundry pole person, etc. And everyone favorite, the bosozoku.

In Osaka I heard the bosozoku, but in the distance. The only disturbance there was the kerosene guy and the politicians w/ their trucks. But there is no escaping those.

Now I live in a medium city, in a secluded area. It's in off just the main road, but a dead end street. And no real reason for someone to come back here. I do get that kerosene guy, but that about it. The only thing that was hard to get used to was the trains going by. After two years of living at my current location, I don't even notice them.

[J.]

Oh man, don't get me started on this one! Japan must be the noisiest country on earth; well I hear maybe China is noisier, but probably not by much. Not only do we have those cursed loud-speaker trucks making the rounds early Sunday morning, and I was just cussing at them this morning as a matter of fact, but we have the motorcyclers with the loud "mufflers" going round at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, just long enough to wake you up and then you can't get back to sleep. May they both roll over big nails and get a quick deflation.

Then, there're the trains. If you travel a lot by train, you will soon be deaf from the roar of the Express trains arriving and departing. And out here in the country we have a delightful train that not only announces every stop 4 times, but then bing-bongs at high decibels two or three times when it is just about to leave EVERY station, and that's INSIDE the cars.

If you happen to have to walk by the conductor to get to the station exit, and almost everyone does 'cause he stands by the stairs, then you are treated to an ear-splitting whistle, just as you pass by, before the train departs, this despite the fact that no one else who wants to catch the train is within 3 kilometers. It took several really big scowls and mutters in their direction before they modified the loudness of these, so they now blast my rear rather than my ears.

There are some supermarkets I won't frequent because of the number of tape players, in every aisle, blaring announcements of specials over and over, which interferes a great deal with my trying to phonetically puzzle out the package ingredients in Japanese. This is only exceeded on my hate list by that inane dango song.

Then there are the Right-Wing Mafiosa; sometimes a passing bus is enough to almost knock me off my bicycle. I call it the "Baka Stun Gun".

The last instance I want to write about is the local festivals, featuring amplifiers and speakers that would do a rock tour proud. These are posted at a near-by corner and play so loud that the panes of my glass doors hum-and-sing-along and conversation inside or listening to a TV a metre away becomes impossible. And they only last for two days solid. If only someone would invent some good earplugs, I think they would be sitting on a gold mine. If it's you, let me know, I'll be ordering a gross or two a week.

[Guy Courchesne]

I read an article some time ago that listed Madrid as the noisiest city in the world, with some Latin American cities close behind. DF is certainly loud, except on Sundays when it is quiet as a mouse.

Guadalajara, like Abu notes, never struck me as particularly loud, except maybe for Saturday afternoon in the central market.

I lived in Acapulco for close to two years and the silence of the place nearly drove me mad, along with the heat and drunken tourists.

[denise]

Aaaaaah, thanks for the memories, eveyone!

The noise in my semi-rural little rice farming town drove me absolutely bonkers.

My town in Peru is a bit noisy too, but it seems more appropriate, given the livelier and more out-going "typical" Latin personality. Japan being the stereotypically shy, meek place that it is, the noise seemed really inappropriate.

d

[David W]

Where I live isn't that noisy. I'm out in the sticks and the most noise I have to put up with is my kids in the morning. I do have double glazed windows though. That having been said I've never been particularly worried by the noise anywhere I've lived in Japan. Drink enough whiskey and you'll never be troubled.

[TokyoLiz]

Despite living a mere 10 minute's walk from the station, jammed into a coopo building with nine 20 somethings with weird hours, I don't find my neighbourhood noisy at all. Mind you, I'm not a late sleeper, and I get out on weekends, usually early, so I'm not bothered by the gas truck, recylce truck, or the thrice daily Big Ben chime.

I kind of like the rhythm.

My guest, from London, says that he sleeps like a log when he's in my apartment. He says London's much noisier.

I even find it quieter than my hometown of Vancouver. Cheap apartments close to transportation can be had (I bicycled and car co-oped there), but they tend to be close to major thoroughfares. I don't miss the roar of traffic.

[Sweetsee]

Nice and quiet where I live, just on the border of Saitama/Tokyo.
The biggest plus is the absence of power lines, amazingly enough.