There has been a growing trend in the Nagoya area for people to wear a full set of headphones rather than the smaller, hair-style-friendly earphones. Men and women of all ages are getting in on the style, too. Does this mean that Nagoya is too loud, or are people actually enjoying the finer nuances of well-composed music?
I've been looking for a pair of noise-canceling earphones in order to listen to podcasts while commuting to the various places I need to work. In an average week I can spend as many as 15 hours on a train. This is when I catch up with Merlin Mann, John Siracusa, and Marco Arment1 in order to learn more about various subjects from people much, much smarter than I am. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to hear them over the bone-shaking drone that comes with riding a Hitachi-built train. Which brings me to the only real problem of wearing noise-canceling earphones: they won't stop the train's vibration from shaking my body and creating noise.
It may be a bit much to spend the money on an expensive pair of mini-speakers to shove in my ear and coat with wax to listen to podcasts with horrible audio issues, but the shows put out by 5by5 are typically top quality. On top of that, I do listen to a lot of music while out and about, too. I can't remember the last time I was able to hear all of the highs and lows while enjoying some Paul Van Dyk. Would a pair of full-cover headphones be a better investment?
Back in Vancouver I had a great pair of Senheisser 300 headphones. They were comfortable and had excellent audio quality. Unfortunately they couldn't come to Japan for lack of space, and I was forced to part with them. I kick myself almost every day for that decision.
Wonder if there's a place that will rent headphones on a weekly basis. I'd have less trouble spending the money on a good set if I knew they would solve the majority of my issues.
