Day Thirteen - Noise

Posted on 2006/12/14 01:48:47 (December 2006).

[13th December 2006]

Another busy day at the office and visiting clients. I have learnt by heart the presentation by now and I feel really natural when talking about the several fabrics, fashion concepts and so on.

Part of the difficulty of starting a new job is finding the right pace. Like a runner, if you give too much at the start you are bound to fail, and eventually you will collapse before the finishing line.
If you start too slow, well, there's nothing that's going to bridge the gap between you and the rest of the group.

I need to find my pace now. This will be a matter of time, only that can solve the problem. Of course I have to hope that they will not want to terminate me in between! :D

Anyways as you know I have bought an Ipod, gadget that I dearly love. I am now listening to music while travelling in the crammed trains to go to work, and it helps a lot to get the time go by.
Having something to listen to made me realize how noisy is Japan.

It's incredible the fact that everything "speaks" (trains, traffic lights, buildings), and most of the time (but this is very common in Asia), the louder the merrier.
So I was walking around Shibuya, one of the young districts in Tokyo, and I COULND'T BLOODY LISTEN to the music in my ears!!!
I am not joking, everything was working, but still I would only hear the music shot at me from a shoe shop, or the words coming out of the loudspeakers of that huge TV screen positioned right in the middle of a building...

I then took some time to research the places that are likely to impair my ability to listen to my Ipod, and after the crammed places like Shibuya, we got the Train Station!! Here I think that it is also done because many people tend to sleep on the train, while still keeping a small part of the brain awake to listen to the speaker so that they don't miss their stop. This skill, although inbred in Japanese people, can be learned by gaijins as well, I am a clear example.
Anyways, digression aside, the train station is crap to listen to the Ipod.

Japan is noisy. It's "in your face" whit loads of bright and shimmering lights and high pitched and sharp sounds.

One of the things that I appreciate of my current accommodation is the fact that it's "quiet". No cars, no lights from Pachinko parlours, or people screaming about their new mobile phone offer or Udon dish...

Noise...

There is also the noise coming from the antlike movements that are typical of the Japanese stations and generally of the crowded places around the world...

I never really thought about it, but it all must put a lot of stress on the brain, even if it is done at subliminal level, maybe it is also because of that that every return trip to Japan ends up with me being completely brain dead for at least 3/4 days...

In the evening I managed to rest at my place, I quite liked it.

A fascinating insight to Tokyo there, Lox. I am going to have to suggest you buy some proper headphones for your iPod to help with these problems!! Might I suggest the Sennheiser PX200? These are the "closed" version of the PX100 and offer a great quality sound while helping block out some of the outside noise. Unlike bigger ones they can run quite happily from an iPod.. (!) :)

Posted by Nigel at 2006/12/14 09:09:02.

Nigel: I was considering buying the ones that seem to have a drill attached to the speakers, basically they are meant to be like that to be inserted deep into the ear... But still I haven't made my mind on that... First things I want to buy (probably will buy it today on ebay) is a ipod cover!

Posted by Lox at 2006/12/14 09:35:37.

Ah! Good idea! I have trouble with those in-ear headphones - they just keep falling out. I clearly have a funnily-shaped head!! So I tend to prefer "external" headphones! :)

Posted by Nigel at 2006/12/14 09:44:58.

A far cheaper work-around.. Get down to B&Q (or other DIY type store) and purchase a cheap pair of ear defenders... Wear your ear-bud phones as normal and just put the ear defenders on over the top.. Peace perfect peace and great sounds too all at a reasonable price..

Posted by Jerry at 2006/12/15 01:41:00.

Jerry: I'll look around, I am sure they have some ear defenders with flappy puppetty ears, those would be nice! :D

Or even better, I could simply go away!

Posted by Lox at 2006/12/15 01:48:58.

Post a comment