I’m really happy to see some real attempts at change here in Tokyo when it comes to the horrible pollution from the cigarette smoke. Most of my friends know that I’m really sensitive to smoke. First I noticed all the “No Smoking On the Streets” or “No Smoking While Walking” signs painted on the pavement or around the streets or on the walls in Ogikubo. Now I see the same thing near Waseda. I always dread the 10 minute walk from Waseda subway station to the university during which I have to navigate my way through dozens of smoking students and desperately find a chunk of pavement where I can breathe non-smoky but already exhaust filled air. The experience almost always leaves me nauseated by the time I reach Takada library on campus.
Today I saw huge signs around the Hachiko dog statue in Shibuya, asking people not to smoke around the popular meeting place. I never meet friends there for two reasons: 1) the rest of Tokyo meets there, which defeats the purpose of having a place to meet where you can easily find friends, 2) the entire area is a cloud of foul smelling tobacco smoke that makes me want to puke.
So is anyone following these rules in Ogikubo, near Waseda, on Waseda’s campus where smoking outdoors is only to be done in designated areas, or around Hachiko in Shibuya? Umm….nope. I don’t think any of them are enforceable or are enforced as any kind of punishable offense. Hachiko was still a cloud of smoke today and the walk to Waseda and around campus last time was still a nauseating experience. However, these are the first steps in the right direction. It is time for the absolutely ridiculous and moronic argument that “You are taking away our freedom to smoke even outside now, what about our rights?” to be revealed for the stupidity and selfishness that it is a glowing example of. It is time for smokers to realize that the air we breathe is a common good that unfortunately all of us share. When you fill the air with smoke and enjoy the rush of a narcotic flowing through your blood, you think you are exercising a freedom or a right. That is complete bullshit. You are filling OUR air with smoke that WE have to breathe as we walk together on the pavement. On the streets of Tokyo, packed as it is with people, unless I stay in my cottage every day, I must breathe the air that everyone else does and spend almost all outdoor moments in great discomfort because of your selfishness.