Random Nihongo factoid of the week:

Smoking is so ingrained in Japanese culture, and has been around for so long, that "tobako" is usually written in hiragana (as opposed to the katakana that most foreign words use) and many Nihonjin are completely unaware the word was originally English.

It's kind of odd, really. In California, the concept of smoking ANYWHERE indoors is outrageous (no one has to ask for a non-smoking section; if you're in the restaurant, you're in the non-smoking section), and to smoke in a crowded public area is also frowned upon. Elsewhere in the states, you can get away with smoking in parks and in designated smoking areas in various buildings, but you're still expected to respect non-smokers and not light up in enclosed spaces. In Japan, a place is presumed "smoking" until a sign declares otherwise, no matter where it is (and the signs usually only exist if smoking there would be an actual fire hazard). I've seen teachers smoke in suffocatingly small offices, shoppers smoke in stores of all kinds, and passengers smoke on the less crowded trains and buses. As someone who goes out of his way to avoid the smell of burning tobacco: Joy. -_-