Man, right up there with VHS tapes, floppy disks, and payphones in terms of "things that I grew up with I thought would always be there, until they were not".

Man, right up there with VHS tapes, floppy disks, and payphones in terms of "things that I grew up with I thought would always be there, until they were not". I saw them again in Japan 12 years ago. Video arcades were lousy with them, and I came to understand why when I encountered a very sad-looking young woman smoking profusely and playing Tekken. Arcades were like poolhalls or bowling alleys: loci of working-class leisure. Of course they were going to accommodate smoking as a stress beater, since Japan was well behind the west in terms of socially deprecating tobacco use. I think even Japanese society is changing in this regard.