[steven]

MMM, I tend to agree with you for the most part... the part that is really crazy to me is like you said... there are 40, 50, and 60 year olds drinking out until god knows when even on weekdays! I'm in my early 20's and I can't keep up with these guys.

As far as intoxication in public goes, when I've seen in it California it's either a bum who's drunk or regular (I guess?) people who are high. I've seen a ton of people high around where I lived. I've seen people toking up while driving even. I think in s. california there are a lot more high people walking around than I'd like to imagine. By the time I was a senior in high school there were probably 3-4 kids high in every class I had.

However, even at that level, they weren't high to the point of falling out of their chairs... and that seems to be the "intoxicated" level here in Japan.

Being a white person, I feel a little rude asking this, but do Japanese folks get a lot of liver failure??? I'm in such aw at all the 60+ year old Japanese smoking and drinking past like 12 AM on weekdays. I feel a little jealous, to be honest... how much more resiliant are they than I to this stuff? I feel like if I kept up at that pace for a year I'd be dead.