April 28th, 2002. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Craig is back in Tokyo, so we made plans to meet up before I left this place for good. After stalking around for a while looking for a decent nabe (hot pot) place to eat, we settled on Mos Burger in Kabuki-cho.

Kabuki-cho is the redlight district and is thus home to some pretty seedy massage parlours and adult-oriented establishments. If you are a guy walking through the area, you are sure to be approached by men in tuxedoes, promising to get you a girl who will open her legs, if only you open your wallet. But this particular night, we got approached more than normal (not that I hang out here normally. Really.)

The funny part is that they would always approach me in Japanese, and Craig would shoot back with something. By the time they got over the shock, we would be 20m down the street, waving away some other tuxedo-clad pimp. There was one club in particular that had large block letters taped to the door declaring: NO FOREIGNERS ALLOWED. We stood there for a moment in utter awe that something like that would be allowed on the front door, when a man came sauntering up the stairs of the place to talk to us. He mumbled something to me in Japanese and I just stared back blankly. Craig asked him about the sign. The man laughed and told him that it was ok for him to come in because he was with a Japanese guy.

I learned two things that night:

1) Watashi wa Hong Kong ke Canada-jin des.
2) The letter "H" in a sign means that the place offers prostitution services. It comes from the Japanese word for pervert, which is hentai (now you guys know what people are yelling at you).

We stopped by Starbucks to grab a cuppa caffine and continued walking about. Craig suddenly stopped at a vending machine and called me back. "Whoa. Check this out." I bought two packs.

How cool is this? I appreciate what this company is doing. They are taking the mandatory health warning policy and shoving it back up the government's ass.

I don't smoke, but these make me wish I did.

Sorry about the blurry picture. I really like the motto. You know, I think Dennis Leary foretold of this in his album No Cure for Cancer, years ago