But when the lot starts to fill up (which “usually happens at 4AM or so,” according to Tung) what looks like a maddening ballet of autonomous parking — and honking — begins. The noise goes for as much as an hour at a time before it settles down, she said.
Did you read the article? Because that sounds really egregious.
It's something you have to worry about in basically all apartments (in the US--despite thin walls and no insulation, I never had loud and inconsiderate neighbors when I lived in Japan). You might get lucky and get a place with good soundproofing, but the odds are slim.
My experience in American restaurants is that the music is usually whatever is currently popular, so there's a lot of hip hop and pop songs about dancing and fucking.
...dogs have conscious functioning.