New York is quite loud, which is not good for your hearing and causes a whole bunch of health problems. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/31/new-yor...

I would also say that navigating the piles of garbage on the sidewalk is not fun, either.

This 100%, I measured the volume in my neighborhood in Central Tokyo 5 mins from the nearest station (it’s one of the more popular spots in the city) and it clocks in at 30dB or less. Compared to Manhattan where it’s deafeningly loud all the time.

Aside, NYC’s train system is, besides being filthy, unreliable, slow, poorly maintained, and a pain to switch between transit agencies, it’s also unfriendly to anyone who isn’t fully able bodied (the escalators and elevators are always broken and only present in a small fraction of stations), and neighborhoods are often designed in ways that lend places outside of the Manhattan core to be more dangerous and unpleasant than they have to be. Not to mention the usage of land in and around stations is very poorly used (the ~2 shops in Times Square station are a hilarious joke for what’s ostensibly the financial capital of the world), and any expansion of the system is prohibitively expensive for stupid political reasons.

But I suppose it’s still better than the transitless wasteland that is most of the USA.

>This 100%, I measured the volume in my neighborhood in Central Tokyo 5 mins from the nearest station (it’s one of the more popular spots in the city) and it clocks in at 30dB or less. Compared to Manhattan where it’s deafeningly loud all the time.

Shibuya?

Shibuya is somewhat exceptional in Tokyo whether or not it's unique.

In Manhattan it's more like the constant blaring of horns and near-constant sirens of various types.

No, but even there if you walked 5 mins from the station towards Ebisu (away from the arterial road), Shinsen, Yoyogi Uehara, or even towards Harajuku on Cat Street it would probably be similarly quiet.