Japan is probably the last developed country where you can still smoke almost everywhere.
People here feel it's their right to smoke anywhere they so please. I don't understand why they don't pee everywhere too, or maybe they do, only God knows!
I often fantasize carrying a water pistol around and shoot at the lit-up cigarettes on the street one by one. It disgusts me how people can walk and smoke at the same time. Do they walk and pee at the same time too?
Worst of all, I often get to sit next to the only smoker in the restaurant. It’s just my luck! Over the years, I’ve developed some techniques to give the next table smokers the hints, including fanning away the coming smoke with the menu, covering my nose and mouth like he has contagious disease, coughing so hard like I am about to pass out, etc.
Once I had an argument with my neighbor downstairs because he often smoked on his balcony and the smoke came into my living room without invitation. And when I asked why he didn't smoke inside, he said he didn't want to make his wife and daughter suffer from his second- hand smoke!
It was his business if he chose to die from lung cancer one day, but I refused to die along too. Of course in the end I won the case. He stopped smoking on his balcony, and I stopped spraying air-freshener on mine. The other day I met him in the elevator and he proudly informed me he had quit smoking successfully!
Whenever I see any of my students smoking in the gas chamber, I threaten them with more homework. Such a filthy, hideous habit from such young age! Yuk!
Do they think they look cool when they are smoking? Or do they actually enjoy it? I’ve never smoked, so I honestly have no idea. But one thing for sure, there are no smiling smokers!
