I’ve spent most of my life around smokers. Both my parents smoked, although my mom quit in the early 70’s, and both my paternal grandparents smoked. I lived in Albania where men didn’t just smoke, they smoked as if they were James Bond smoking a cigarette. I now live in Japan which until recently was a smoker’s paradise.

I’ve therefore inhaled a lot of second hand smoke. (For the record, I don’t believe the BS that second hand smoke is more dangerous than smoking. If that were true, it would have been safer for me to smoke cigarettes while my parents were smoking rather than just sitting in the room with them.) Either way, it’s pretty amazing that I never started smoking. In fact, I never had any interest in smoking cigarettes. I’ve smoked the occasional cigar, especially when I could find decent Cuban cigars in Europe and Canada. In a fit of pique I also tried smoking pipes. (Way too much work and affectation for my taste. Also, I don’t have a proper beard or proper smoking jacket.)

Because of this, people smoking doesn’t bother me that much. When I first came to Japan, the no-smoking section was a tiny closet, often lacking full facilities at the back of the restaurant and I would occasionally sit in the smoking section (i.e. the bulk of the restaurant). I did make the mistake once of sitting in the smoking section of a bullet train–simply because it was a crowded train and that was the only seat reservation I could get. I was sick the next day and will never ride in one of those again.

I’m also bothered by people who walk and smoke. This is a phenomenon that seems unique to Japan. Every other place I’ve ever been, smoking was considered a break and the smokers stopped to enjoy a cigarette, or rushed home to have one. In Japan, though, people light up as soon as they exit the train station. It’s common to to be walking behind someone and, all of a sudden, like an old truck changing gears, a cloud of smoke will suddenly billow from the person in front. I’ve also had people flip ash on me and a straight up moron ruin my trousers as he swung his cigarette down around his side. (Children have also been blinded by people doing this.)

Because I don’t mind smokers, I’ve always had a great time hanging out with smokers. At university that was pretty much the the majority of English graduate students and the entire theater department.

My karate sensei and his friends are especially fun after karate tournaments. Sensei smokes, although he’s slowly weaning himself off cigarettes. His friend, though, is the first chain smoker I’ve ever seen light his next cigarette with his current cigarette. He goes through almost an entire pack during a meal. In between puffs, and swigs of alcohol, they will discuss the tournament and complain about the judging. They will also explain everything I did wrong that led to me not winning. Every now and then, though, they will disagree about a technique and that leads to several minutes of drunken fun.

I just sit back and drink. And, on occasion, wish I had a cigar.