Rainy marathon
Patrick didn’t sneak into the marathon today. The weather was terrible, so disappointing for the organisers (and the runners I would guess). He stayed home and watched it on TV instead. Much more my style of sports participation.
I was doing a lesson on traffic accidents today, and thought it the perfect opportunity to slip in something about train accidents and see what is really going on with all those train delays. The students assured me these were all accidents involving people… I suddenly didn’t want to know any more so changed the topic… mystery remains.
I do find the classes a good opportunity to get to know this place and its people quite well…
I was suprised to find that smoking is still allowed in restaurants and in some trains here. There are ciggarette vending machines everywhere, and advertisements for ciggarettes still up on billboards and such. So odd for a city that seems otherwise very modern, and has other quite strict rules regarding things like inconsiderate use of mobile phones in public.
I brought up the smoking issue in class a number of times and was suprised to hear that every person, smoker or not, disagreed with the suggestion that Tokyo should take up any strict restrictions on smoking in public places.
Even non-smokers who openly hated the smell of cigarettes felt that smokers should have the right to smoke wherever they liked. Most students I asked also questioned if smoking really was so bad for the health.
I have a whole new respect for the anti-smoking public education campaigns in Australia now, as I think this view might have been that of many Australians not long ago, but I am sure it is not any longer. The change also seems to have come over a relatively short period of time…. maybe I am wrong..
I have been too lazy to take photos recently so have been recycling old ones into these posts.
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