I’m not sure which is better though, in America, you get all kinds of neighbors and sometimes they can be friendly to the point where you lose some privacy

I thought this only happened in the movies. Truth is, while I wouldn't prefer the Japanese way of solitudeness or a little or mild hostility towards their neighbours I think I'll rather prefer an equilibrium: be friendly to your neighbours but do not infringe or their privacy, or study what or how they truly want to be treated. It's of course very good to study people in other to seriously know them because this is how you're going to end up relating to them. In Nigeria however, you'll obviously get away with any type of noise or nuisance you constitute because the system is not even working well to check these excesses.