女！

このレッスンはぴったり！会話の前、ちょっとピータ先生の忠告はいいし、ゆっくりのスピードもいいし。

Oh and…Natsuko san, now you HAVE to do a lesson on how your marathon goes! Ganbatte!

I live in The Netherlands and here u need to be 16 to buy sigarets and low prosentage alcohol. but for strong alcohol and gambaling you need to be 18.

I will save a lot of money becouse i do’nt smoke, drink, or gamble
my only adiction is watching J-dorama, anime and playing computer games

4 live

i have too many addictions…
sound, music, technology, history, linguistics, japanesepod101, collecting 葵の御紋… i could go on and on… but i probably shouldn’t in public…

btw - a bit of a cultural note, in japan smoking is a ubiquitous torture i’m subjected to on a daily basis (no offense to any smokers out there). i never realized how good certain cities in the US had become about smoking until i came here. in japan, i literally see people smoke WHILE they are eating! or when the light at the crosswalk goes red, they light up and suck down a whole cigarette. that’s the epitome of addiction, i think.
japanese people are usually so polite, but when it comes to cigarettes, it’s as if it’s a god given right.

a few years ago, i did some research on the subject and met a lawyer who works for Japan Tobacco. he told me that the japanese government owns at least 50% of Japan Tobacco (they used to own almost all of it in the past). this company is immensely influential and has been since the early Meiji period.
internationally it’s one of the richest companies in the world. within Japan and asia, it’s one of the most powerful and influential. so as a result, smoking is acceptable in a many places i would have thought it not:
at the so-called “family restaurants” (diners), often the smoking section is much larger than the non-smoking section and non-smokers have to walk thru that section to get to a non-smoking seat. then they’ll have to pass thru it again to get to the bathroom.
or many restaurants don’t even have a non-smoking section.

things seem to be changing quickly, but………..

This sounds like a pretty realistic conversation. I mean, you could have this anywhere in the world and there is someone saying the same thing.

I usually don’t smoke, but sometimes I bet on a baseball game. But I only make easy bets. The loser buys dinner or gets an embarrassing photograph taken for the internet.

Kitty-chan

私はビール中毒です! タバコが悪いですけどバーでやむを得ない時々です。

i think it’s good lesson

is that a curious george reference in the dialougue?