It was a bad Japan day. After a full day of teaching into the evening, the train was too crowded to find a seat on the way home, and just as I was taking up the old Japanese horse tradition (sleeping while standing), a drunk "salaryman" sidled up and accosted me with bad English for an entire 30 minutes. A friend once suggested getting rid of stress through aromatherapy. I remember thinking: Who has time to smell? Besides, I gave up inhaling Japanese air a long time ago.

You see, one of the first things I noticed when I came to Japan was -- it smells. All countries have their own distinct smells, such as spices in India or garlic in Italy. What does Japan smell like? "O-bentos"? Pork "udon"? No. Japan has always smelled like garbage -- burning garbage. But now that Japan is slowly eliminating the burning of garbage, this smell will hopefully become a smell of the past.

There used to be a public garbage incinerator in my neighborhood, which meant that smoke wafted through my house daily. I often closed the windows in summertime just to be able to breathe. I eventually developed a strategic shallow form of breathing, the same way some people smoke cigarettes without inhaling the smoke.