So here's a nice little contradiction: be polite and always think of others first but vehicles blasting ads from megaphones is totally ok. Someone please explain that. Even in my little residential area far from any metro station, you have tiny trucks blaring announcements driving down our narrow roads (note: the above photo is in Shinjuku, not my place... not sure why I'm explaining that but yeah). Why do they allow this? I just don't understand. It only bothers everyone. Sure, they don't do it real late at night or super early but still. It's extremely annoying and it destroys the tranquility. I don't know about you but I hate ads. They're unavoidable but do we really need vehicles screaming them at us?
Ok it's really not that big of a problem. It's not like it happens every five seconds but it's just a bit odd. Noise pollution here seems perfectly acceptable. I can understand if you're a politician with a mic in front of a metro station but isn't it convenient how they only come out when it's election time?
Then there's the issue of noisy neighbors or neighbors who are way too sensitive to any possible noise (good luck raising kids here). Japan really needs some serious intermediary to deal with this since the police don't seem to do anything until it's too late. I'm lucky though because my apartment complex is pretty quiet and relaxed although some people below me occasionally love to make a ton of loud noise at 2am. Does anyone do anything about it? Apparently, some tenants did complain but the management did nothing besides sending letters to everybody. Great job. So in conclusion, noisy neighbors are a big no no but trucks yelling ads are ok? Alright, that makes sense.
