And no vaping culture to speak of.

It is quite extraordinary to have witnessed this period in Japan’s History.

As I’m not a smoker I can’t tell you what the cigarettes nicotine addicts in Japan have been encouraged to adapt to are like, but whatever the difference is is striking. Despite always having had machines that suck in and filter smoke in his apartment and ensuring he didn’t smoke in the same room we would be eating and sleeping in, unpacking our clothes after a stay at my father-in-law’s house was very different this time around. The lingering cigarette smell was negligible compared to previous trips.

At least the low whatever it is alternative isn’t something teenagers are taking up en masse as they are with vaping elsewhere in the world.