Lighting up the Room

I am writing this entry from a small McDonalds in Japan. The place holds about thirty people of all ages, offering them the same menu available to millions and millions of people around the world. You may ask, “What is the main difference that makes this one worth blogging about?” One deep breath will give you the answer. This McDonalds is not non-smoking. In fact, it is quite filled with smoke, as a quick glance around will tell you. At least five people are puffing away, with a few others tentatively fingering their cigarette packs and lighters on the tables.

Most people in the US would be outraged, with cries of “Second hand smoke!” ringing out across the McFlurrys and double cheeseburgers. I am not worried. Should I be? Second hand smoke is a proven health hazard and, it is true, I don’t smoke myself, so I have every right to be mad. But I am not. Having spent many blissful hours in smoky arcades, I do – to a degree – find smoke comforting. It takes me to a happy place of sorts. The way it lazily curls up in the air, blanketing the ceiling, gives me something to focus on, something to keep my mind from wandering. But, of course, that is not the only reason I do not mind smoke.

The truth is, I like that fact that Japanese society is tolerant to the degree that it allows smoking in a very child-friendly, family restaurant. I like that people are willing to tolerate other peoples' so-called “filthy” habits in order to allow the greatest variety of people to be at the same place, enjoying the same food, at the same time. Simply put, I am willing to put up with smoke in order to facilitate a tolerant society – a society where people feel free to do what they want, where they want. I even go so far as to consider myself considerate of others because of this. So often we want someone to stop something they are doing – in this case lighting up – because it bothers us. I say, “Is the confrontation and undoubtedly hurt feelings of the smoker worth the complaint? They just want to relax the same way you do. Stop believing you are number one for a few minutes of your day and think of those around you." They want to smoke? Let them.

This is very Japanese of me. And, in a country where porn magazines are regularly read openly on trains, ads on the street for sex shops contain nudity, noise pollution laws are non-existent, and truckers openly urinate on the side of the road, it could be argued that smoking in a public restaurant is the least of the Japanese peoples’ worries.

Putting up with cigarette smoke is a small price to pay for the privilege of being in a society where people are forced to interact with each other. In the suburban US it seems that so much of the population goes from their isolated house to their isolated car - very controlled, environments – and rarely have to interact with other people to the degree that city-dwelling denizens do. People matter, smokers matter, and if having a all-smoking restaurant is part of nurturing the wildly diverse society that is present in Tokyo, more power to them.