As a result, I have become a self appointed vigilante to police the "non smoking" areas of Tokyo. (Sadly these are not frequent enough). I think the council needs to put me on their payroll!
I begged this man to hand over his vest to me, I need this to compensate for my lack of local lingo!
Unfortunately, he wasn't forthcoming.
Recently I was hurrying to the station, hot and bothered with heavy bags, breathing deeply with exertion. Unfortunately there was someone ahead of me "sharing" his cigarette smoke for all those within 30 meters behind him.
That was the last straw for me in my grumpy state, I hurried ahead to catch up with him. He had earphones in, but that didn't deter me, I have to play charades most of the time to communicate here anyway!
Fortuitously, one of the "no smoking" footpath signs came into vision at this very moment, and I pointed at it, coughed and spluttered vigorously, waved the cigarette smoke away from my face, and did the big "cross the arms meaning NO". He got the message, looked shamefaced, quickly took a few dying drags on his cigarette, and stamped it out. A WIN to me!!!
I don't always have such success. Sometimes I just get a bemused stubborn look. Japanese men are not used to being bossed around by women they don't know. Japanese people in general are not used to being challenged, most people put up with the rare misdemeanors that occur.
One of the best scenes was outside a building where a couple of vending machines stood. It was a quiet back street, the perfect place for the salarymen to come and have coffee from the machine and smoke themselves stupid. But.. hello.... there was a "no smoking" sign on the footpath. So, what do you think I witnessed? Five salarymen standing around the sign smoking happily away. I missed getting a photo, but it would have been a good one.
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