Today, I took my daughter and son-in-law to the summit of Diamond Head. I had climbed it several times, and I found that I didn't take pictures for myself, though I took many pictures of the young couple. By the way, I came across an interesting expression on a sign and took its picture, which you can see below. For a native English speaker, it does not feel special, but I'm Japanese. I got confused seeing it. Something rings odd with the use of the word 'free.' for me. I can understand what the sign asks us based on common sense, or with an understandable illustration, but some Japanese might take it as you can freely throw away garbage from the words only. Thus, I chose "smoke-free“ as the title of this entry. When I saw this expression for the first time, I understood that you could freely smoke there. Luckily, it was on the test paper in my high school days, and I got off with a minimum deduction of points. From now on, I must watch out when the word 'free' appears.
(Vocabulary)
based on a common sense 常識で考えて
get off with （軽い罰など）だけで済む
deduction of points 減点
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