Noise In Japan

Public noise is very different in Japan. While at a concert or festival, you can expect the huge audience to sit in near-absolute quiet during a performance, on the other hand as you walk down the street you may encounter a wide variety of loudspeakers.

There's political noises--from the scary right-wing propaganda vans to the Communist Party, out on a street corner bright and early in the morning with big banners, politely introducing themselves. "Hello! We are So-and-so, So-and-so, and So-and so from the Communist Party of Japan! Excuse us for disturbing you! .... message I don't understand... thank you for listening!" *profuse bowing*

(Personally, I like the communists better, even if they DON'T blast wind band oom-pah music with Japanese lyrics of presumably but not necessarily political content, like the black vans I've heard lately.)

There are also recycling trucks a few times a week that drive around with a megaphone announcing what they're collecting. "Bring out your dead!" (Well, I assume not... but who knows, really?) Similarly, advertising cars blast what sound basically like normal radio ads from megaphones on their rooves.

Finally, there's town music. Kochi City doesn't have music, but Ino town, where I stayed in May, does. At I think 17:00, loudspeakers sprinkled liberally throughout the area (really, I was in a fairly rural place, not the centre of town or anything) play a nice pleasant midi tune, I suppose to let everyone know it's time to go home from work now! or something like that. It's kindof cute.

And THEN there are the incessant cicadas, but I guess that's not EXACTLY the same...