Masako is going into the hospital tomorrow afternoon for some more tests and will get settled in for a 6 day stay. Only a few days left. Not sure if I'm ready.

I finally got the new Sony Ericsson A5402S. It is loaded with camera capible of taking 640x480 photos, video and GPS. I'll be regularly posting photos in the moblog and my mobile shots gallery thanks to Kevin at MFOP.

On Saturday while coming back from a few beers in Machida I stumbled across some punk kid smoking in front of the escalators inside the station (smoking was banned in most stations May 1 , this year). I stopped and politely told him that smoking was not allowed here twice both in Japanese and English and he just stared back blankly and took another hard drag. I snapped, grabbed his wrist then his cigarette and tossed it off the platform and on to the tracks. Man that felt good but he probally lit one up right after I left.

Today as Masako and I were coming back from dinner through the station some business man was hiding a smoke behind a large concrete column. I walked directly up to him and gave him the same line about smoking not allowed. He replied with a sort of, "yeah, yeah, yeah go away" I grabbed him by the shirt and turned him around to show him the large "NO SMOKING" sign and he butted it out with his shoe heel. As we turned the corner to walk down the stares leading outside two highschool student came walking up, one with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. I watched him and thought, damn he is lucky that smoke isnt lit! As if he was reading my thoughts the little brat lit his smoke with a stinky zippo. I cut directly across the stairs while his friend ran out of my way. I gave him the same no smoking speech and he just looked at me blankly. I guess I was still built up from the last guy so I just snapped and yelled, I mean really yelled load NO SMOKING! CAN"T YOU READ THE SIGN?? in Japanese. They looked at each other in confusion and he stepped outside to finish his butt completely afraid of this raving crazy gaijin. Afterward I felt bad that I yelled at them, maybe they were just in the wrong place and the wrong time or maybe not.

I have nothing against smokers, I myself smoked on and off for the last 8 years but always respected the rights of non-smokers. I was very happy to see the smoking ban on private train lines this spring but no-one seems to be enforcing it or even stepping up and saying something when a group of teenagers are squatting around in a circle smoking and spitting on the platform or when the salary man sparks up next to the pregnant woman standing in line to buy a ticket. There is no penaltiy for braking this rule, so why would anyone abide by it? Maybe a little fear will help.

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