Smoking

I have never seen so many active and healthy elderly people out and about.  Every morning and many afternoons there are groups of elderly people doing exercises and stretches all while singing/groaning.  Women and men well over the age of 70 pass us on their bicycles everyday.  For being such a healthy and health conscious country it amazes me that they have no regard for the idea of second hand smoke.

There are designated areas in largely populated public areas for smoking.  This is usually a giant glass box with a few benches and ashtrays inside.  With everyone smoking inside and very little ventilation it looks like a hot box from the outside.

Yet no one in this country seems to have anything against smoking in restaurants.  Many of the restaurants we have wanted to try had several people smoking and so we would move on to the next.  But it ruins your meal when you are sitting down to eat and someone lights up a cigarette at the table next to you.  Especially because the space is so small that there is little room to escape.

We went to our favorite Indian restaurant last night.  And this time Seth joined us because he didn't have class in Tokyo.  He isn't the biggest fan of Indian food but we were very happy when he said he really liked the food! He said its one of the best meals we've had so far!

Anyways, we had just gotten our food when the older couple next to us light their cigarettes.  We were disappointed because we had finally found a place we loved! And even more frustrated when we realized they weren't even smoking the cigarettes! they were having a conversation while just holding them! Gahh