Thursday, November 12, 2009

Won't Miss #74 - butts in bushes


During my earlier days in Japan, I used to work in Shinjuku, a major business district in Tokyo. On the corner near my office, there was a bowling-ball sized and shaped ashtray half-full of water. People would casually toss their cigarettes in there all day until it filled up and the water wasn't sufficient to put out the cigarettes. It smoldered and stunk badly. Those ashtrays were removed at some point and now people are supposed to carry little personal ashtrays that look a bit like a round ended lipstick tube with a flip top. As you can imagine, many people don't like to carry their own ashtrays. These people have a maneuver down pat to allow them to toss their butts in the bushes where they become somebody else's problem. If you are walking along and see someone duck down quickly in what appears to be a move to pluck a dropped item off the ground, you're actually seeing a smoker extinguishing his butt and flicking it in the bushes at lightning speed (so he doesn't get caught as this is not allowed).

I won't miss this flagrant littering and disregard for the rules.

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