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Comment by tasogare | Hacker News Reader

> People didn't shout in public or have their phones blaring.

Yet Japan is a very noisy country. Store clerks shouting irasshaimase like robots, speaking elevators, politians in campaign and their cars with mega-phone, etc. added to paper thin (sometimes literally) walls make it sometime painful to live here.

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I wonder if that's because so many other things are super quiet. The trains seem whisper quiet compared to our trains in the west. The elevators, when they're not talking, are silent. Everything seems to be perfectly lubricated and maintained to the point where things that seem loud maybe only seem loud because they're not silent?

No. Election megaphones are loud. You will definitely hear them. You'd hear them if they were at Union Square.

Fair enough, they're technically very loud. But, I guess I wonder if they're extra annoying because most things are nearly silent?

The pachinko parlors are particularly quiet and serene.

Huh, my pachinko encounter was the complete opposite. My friend wanted to go to one while we were walking around once. As soon as the doors opened I was accosted by DEAFENING noise and the oppressive smell of cigarette smoke (as if chain-smokers were hot-boxing the place). I told him nope. This is one experience you'll have to try without me.

I believe the comment you responded to was facetious.

I think they were joking

Yeah, but you drown all of the automated noises out pretty quickly, it's just white noise. It's weird stepping into an elevator that doesn't talk to you sometimes; is it even working?

I don't like election cars with loud speakers but that's like twice a year? and clerks telling you welcome and you have problem living in Japan?

You need to choose your place not to pick a cheap rent with paper thin walls...

A place that will also have good thermal insulation and central heating? One can dream... The building norms are cultural, you can’t find something that goes against the grain except by building it yourself.

The Japanese DO NOT talk in elevators.

They don't in trains, too. Sweet blissfullness of silence in the train is not something you appreciate until you really live there for some time and come back home for a holidays.

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