I have a love-hate relationship with Tokyo. I love the energy of it, the weird mix of people and the odd mismatch of worn-down salarymen tired of life and strange, quirky nonconformists, lining up patiently for the peak-hour train. Everything in Tokyo makes a compelling photo. There’s so much to look at and so many opposites, so many contradictions lined up side by side.
Contrary to popular belief, Japan is by no means a quiet place. Coming from Australia, where the most familiar sounds would be the various birds chirping at different times of day, I was always so shocked by the incessant noise. For a country known to be quiet, polite and humble, the noises are anything but that.
Walking the streets of any decent-sized town in Japan, I would always listen to music to block out the background noise.
Of course, Japanese people partake in quiet, polite interactions with each other, but this is against a backdrop of pachinko parlour theme music blasting every time the door opens, or politicians yelling into microphones from vans circling the streets endlessly.
There’s so much background noise in Japan offset against the quietness of the Japanese people.
In Kobe, the kerosene van would drive up our street once a week on Sundays, blasting a horrible children’s song from the 70s. I learned to dread the sound of this truck in the distance, because it would circle the neighborhood for ages and then linger outside outside our front door, the music seeping through the thin walls of our old house.
A special mention goes to the chimes at 5pm that tell the children to go home, at the same time doing a safety check of the emergency communication system; and, of course, the community announcements that also take place over this same network, ranging from weather warnings or community events.
The artificial noise that litters the streets is so exhausting. No wonder so many people in Japan wear headphones to block it out. Creating your own little world is the first step to peace and quiet, and naturally leads to an environment devoid of real human interaction. I mean, you can’t talk to people if you can’t hear them, right?
