I'm really glad we don't live in an apartment building, because a lot of them supposedly have really draconian rules. In particular, you're not supposed to do much of anything after 9:00pm--laundry, shower, even flushing toilets are all strictly verboten. We heard stories about apartment buildings where men were expected to sit down when they peed after a certain time (is there anything more deafening than a man peeing in the night?), but weren't sure if this was true or just a myth--none of the people we've met have been told to sit down at night, or at least not that they'd admit to. Anyway, when I was in Obi (the local equivalent of Home Depot, only nicer) yesterday I got confirmation that this is indeed a problem in at least some jurisdictions--they had this sign for sale, which would seem to indicate that at least some people are trying to take matters into their own hands, so to speak (although judging from the sign, maybe the problem isn't noise but just really poor aim):