Peace. Infinity.

When people ask me what my hobbies are, I usually say "photography". And "reading". I would also like to get into turntabling and maybe join a Japanese archery club -- if only for the sweet uniform.

My hobbies tend to be, or at least GET, expensive. You may not think of reading as a high-cost hobby, but then you factor in Amazon.com and their terribly convenient ordering service. A few clicks later and your credit card bill suddenly has THAT many more figures on it.

But now I'm thinking I should just take up smoking. It's so cheap here! And so readily accessible, from almost every second vending machine. Unlike cigarette packet warnings in other countries, Japan's are very tame. No close-up photo of yellow goo coming out of some unfortunate contaminated respiratory tube of yours, no mutant babies.. Just very small print saying that, y'know, like, smoking leads to cancer. And in lettering that a foreigner could just pretend is part of the packaging design.

People are big on smoking here. Take for example this website where smokers can rate cigarettes and give opinions on their flavour and smokability. On the left side bar of this site are a variety of links, including "rankings". What's popular overseas? What's popular with the ladies?

Japan Tobacco has a new cigarette out, in quite classy packaging. One of the magazine ads shows a gentleman with a saxophone around his neck, evidently taking a break from sax practice by having a smoke while admiring the spectacular view from his glass walled music room (completely with baby grand piano).

Unfortunately, this new fag is called Peace Infinity, which are interestingly enough, two things you get once you die.