Spitting in the airport

I just got back from a 3 week trip to Taiwan. I really enjoy my time over there. The people are great to work with, and the food is always delicious. I'm looking forward to going back again soon.

But sometimes I am taken a little aback at little things. Today after passing through immigration and into the boarding terminal, I heard an old guy hock a loogie. Not out a window or into a plant or in the bathroom. Rather, he spat out a lungful of phlegm right in front of the Mont Blanc store.

7 years ago when I first got to Japan, this kind of thing really annoyed me. Everywhere I went, people were spitting on the sidewalks. It was a veritable wading pool of tobacco tar, saliva, and snot everywhere you went. But this type of behavior, while still occasionally popping up, has been pretty much eradicated from Tokyo.

But as bad as it ever was in Japan, I don't think I ever saw someone spit inside a building onto the floor.

Yuck.