Shinjuku bans smoking on all public streets
Starting today, you can no longer legally stroll the streets of Shinjuku while smoking a cigarette. Or while holding a lit cigarette. Or while dangling a lit cigarette from one hand while holding your mobile phone in the other and talking on it, completely oblivious to the people around you.
Because I live and work in Shinjuku, this news makes me kind of happy.
But I guess a few smokers will be made unhappy — especially the ones who enjoy smoking so much that they like to share their smoke with everybody else wherever they go: on the streets, in even the finest restaurants, etc. But they have the comfort of knowing that Shinjuku officials have prepared enclosed smoking lounges in a few areas — places where smokers can step off the street for a while, gather together, and share their smoke with one another freely.
One suggestion I’ve heard is that the doors on the smoking lounges should have bolts on them. Ones that lock from the outside.
Update: I replaced the previous image (lame Shinjuku-ku logo) with the current “No smoker” one, from a pocket tissue packet my friend Daisuke picked up.
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This is good. This is as it should be. Filthy, no good smokers polluting my air.
Huh? I hear some of you ask, “Yes, but didn’t you _used_ to _smoke_?” Lies. All lies.
*cough* *cough*
Complaining about smokers on the street is like complaining about needles in a haystack. And in Tokyo no less. Have you looked at the air quality readings there lately? Without the smokers you can breathe in that much more smog and other airborn contaminants. Enjoy.
Left Nine, I like smog. Smog builds character and puts hair on your chest.
/me bares chest.
Hmmm, I need more smog.
This really annoys my girlfriend. The first solution she found was to walk down the road just past the sign saying “Minato-ku” and smoke there. But that was pretty hard work, so now she has a better system: she ignores the ban completely.
I hope this solution doesn’t occur to too many other people. Having said that, banning smoking on the street when you can still smoke in McDonalds seems pointless anyway. And when are they gonna get around to banning tabacco advertising? It’s so 20th century! If I see one more poster blatantly trying to link smoking to a sporting lifestyle I’m going to take up alcoholism.