Hey y’all, all good?
I’ve been living in Fukuoka for some time right now, but after a while I’m looking for a bigger apartment and that’s closer for the places that I go frequently. To shorten it, something more convenient.
It happens that I found the apartment of my dreams, pretty much big, cheap, pretty new, 20 minutes by car from the 博多駅, in a city that is extremely quiet and with a lower life-cost compared to the rest of Japan, well, pretty much of a dream, except for the fact that the place is near to a damn shinkansen line.
My question is: have everyone lived close to one? Is it impossible to deal with all the noise or is it okay and you get used to it pretty fast? I don’t think that the shinkansen passes there after 10pm, but still many days I work from home so it could be tiresome.
I’m truly in love with the house, but this is pretty much unsettling. What are your thoughts about this? Thanks to everyone that can help!
12 comments
Shinkansen passes right next to my flat and I genuinely never hear it.
Also, bats live underneath it, and that’s nice for keeping insect pests away. Plus bats are cool.
I live maybe 10 on foot from the shinkansen tracks and can hear it when the windows are open. Whenever I walk through the neighborhood by the tracks, I always wonder how the people can stand it. It’s not like the clack clack clack of a normal train–it’s an incredibly loud woosh as the trains pass. Obviously people have different tolerances for noise, but there’s no way I’d be willing to live next to the tracks.
I used to live right by a Shinkansen line with a regular train line underneath it. We’ll, not quite right by- there was a row of houses between me and it.
You can hear it but it’s not really a bother. Even with the window open it’s not too bad. You get used to it, and and it’s usually pretty smooth.
The regular train sucks waaay more. The crossing alarm whenever the train goes by. Constant trains all day, way louder than the Shinkansen, and worse are the cargo trains, especially at night. But generally there are less trains. So long as you’re not a light sleeper I think you would be fine
I prefer it over living close to a decently busy road
there’s a shinkansen track passing right by hisayama/fukuoka costco. you could go there and check it out at different distances. personally i don’t think its that big of a deal, especially since they stop running at night.
The shinkansen passed right over my window for two years. My cats loved it and guests thought it was cool. I don’t remember being bothered or even hearing. At night a cool strobe effect would pass through my window if the curtains were open. If there was sound, it wasn’t like a regular train. Is was like air passing rapidly.
can you check the noise yourself? go see the place, hang out there for a while with windows open/closed, and see what you hear
I stayed for a few months at a 2nd floor apartment about 15 meters from the Shinkansen line in Hakata, it was a bit noisy with the windows rattling. I also stayed a friend’s house in Gifu also about 15 meters from the Shinkansen, but it wasn’t too bad.
Don’t worry. The sound of planes overhead will drown it out ;-). I’d definitely go and stand by the apartment and see what you think. Maybe view it again and listen with windows open/closed. It wouldn’t bother me after living by rail lines in London and near Heathrow but each to their own.
I can’t tell you anything about the noise of a shinkansen but would like to give you the following input: Noise is also caused by strong wind/ a passing shinkansen when the windows/ beams rattle. Our house is old and during a storm our metal window beams rattle so much that we think it is a huge storm. The neighboring family in the new house tell us thereafter they have heard nothing. So, it also strongly depends on the insulation and quality of the windows and window beams.
There is a point where the shinkansen runs passed Takasaki in Gunma and splits off into lines going to Niigata and Nagano. I had an apartment almost right under it.
I noticed a few the first evening and then almost nothing.
After a week or so it became unusual to notice one.
We lived in front of the tracks. We were on the 9th floor of a building, facing the tracks, which we across the street (nothing on the other side of the street but tracks).
Shinkansens never bothered us, but there were some local trains that would come through and sound clunky. Really nothing bothersome, although we didn’t work from home.
If you look at the place, try to be in it when some trains go by and see what you think.
It depends on how near you are. If you’re right up next to it, it might get bothersome. But the sound buffering for Shinkansen lines is pretty good, so I agree with those who are saying that being close to a regular train line or a busy road is way worse. I live near both, plus a high school, and I pretty much always want to keep white noise or music on in my house. As someone else also suggested, go to this new place at different times of day, hang out and listen. Keep in mind that the human brain learns to tune out a certain amount of background noise.