The little things which make life better

[yanpa]

The chain cafe near my place of slavery where I slope off in the early afternoon for some quality me-time has finally sealed off the smoking area so that none of the valuable smoke is wasted on us non-smokers. I longingly await the day when smokers gain the exclusivity they deserve, but it's a small step on a long road .

[matsuki]

You mean you can't get that smells like you rolled around in an ashtray smell with a window view anymore? How many of the smokers are in there complaining about other people's smoke?

I fucking hate "non-smoking" areas in restaurants that have little or nothing to prevent you from a shower of that nasty stuff....while you try to eat??

[yanpa]

You mean you can't get that smells like you rolled around in an ashtray smell with a window view anymore?

It's a tragedy innit? I went in there for the first time in a few days and my first thought was that they'd given the air filters a good clean, but no they had actually gifted the long-suffering smokers with their own enclosed structure to maximise their enjoyment, while we abstinents are forced to breath clean air and consume food in a particle-free environment. Whatever is the world coming to? Also they finally fitted electric outlets in the right places.

[Samurai_Jerk]

while we abstinents are forced to breath clean air and consume food in a particle-free environment.

I'm confused. I thought you lived in Tokyo.

[yanpa]

while we abstinents are forced to breath clean air and consume food in a particle-free environment.

I'm confused. I thought you lived in Tokyo.

Well it's not quite Kanagawa, but the march of progress (by my reckoning we've reached around 1995 in rest-of-the-world terms) is inexorable.

BTW in general I find the air in Tokyo to be pretty clean, OK it's the centre of a huge conurbation full of machines pumping out stuff into the air but I've never experienced a nose full of polluted snot, which I did in London as late as 1999. Also, my mother, who has a respirational disorder and a general big city allergy, never had any problems here.

[kurogane]

While I am happy for all the non-smokers, I do feel a twinge of regret for the passing of yet another piece of the Tokyo of Yore. Couldn't they have put up a nice hand written or Letraset sign apologising to any non-smoking customers and asking for their understanding????

If things don't slow down, at this rate substantial parts of Japan are going to be dragged willy nilly into the late 20th century, perhaps even as far as the late 90s, as Yanpa noted. Somebody with a sharp business mind might even move to corner the market on plain paper fax machines. The thermal machine crowd are sure to want to trade up once they hear of all these changes and developments.

[matsuki]

While this move to the 90's is quite dramatic, I am still a bit confused by the local 7-11 tearing everything down to "renewal" their store when it was totally fine the way it was and already fitted with LED lighting and a bunch of other upgrades....while the really shitty looking 7-11 down the street looks like it was put together and the floorplan was decided on in the 70's.

[yanpa]

Different franchise owners?

[matsuki]

Different franchise owners?

Could be....but just nuts that one is always being "renewal"ed and the other that needs to be cleaned up, keeps putting along as is.

[Coligny]

Different franchise owners?

Could be....but just nuts that one is always being "renewal"ed and the other that needs to be cleaned up, keeps putting along as is.

There is a new Bell Group maternity clinic that was built near me, with a brand new combini in the parking. Everything is around 5 month old...

I droved by the clinic last weekend... the place where the combini was has been totally flattened and cleaned, they even removed the parking surfacing ( tarmac ?) to let it back to bare earth... Everything is just beside a train station always full of students coming and going from the Toyohashi Tech university...

I still don't get it...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Different franchise owners?

Could be....but just nuts that one is always being "renewal"ed and the other that needs to be cleaned up, keeps putting along as is.

What part of different franchise owner did you not understand?

[Coligny]

Different franchise owners?

Could be....but just nuts that one is always being "renewal"ed and the other that needs to be cleaned up, keeps putting along as is.

What part of different franchise owner did you not understand?

Not forbidden to hope for some common sense in this island...

[yanpa]

Random speculation: could conbini franchises and the like possibly be a conduit for money laundering ?

[wagyl]

There are businesses that engage in tax write offs (which is a classy way of saying "deliberately losing money so that we pay it to someone other than the Government")