Pachinko, the game Tokyo deserves

Hi guys,

So, I've never been terribly tempted to gamble* on pachinko.  Don't get me wrong, the idea has attraction.  While it's a touch hyperbolic to say that one can "never truly understand Tokyo" without understanding pachinko, there is a touch of truth to that as well.  The hypnotic fall of the steel balls has mesmerized many, many Tokyoites.  Just the parlors themselves fascinate me, since I genuinely adore things that are loud or neon--I take naps inside the MRI machine, I use overstimulation (tv + video game + music + chat with friends) as a form or relaxation.  So the pachinko parlors, with their near-blinding neon and fluorescent lights coupled with the near-deafening roar of the falling balls are a delight

Pachinko machines are often described as "vertical pinball machines", which is I suppose not a terrible description.  You put a bill or two into a machine at the end of each aisle, and it spits out a tray of small (~2mm, or 8.5 furlongs, diameter) steel balls.  You then go and dump these balls into your carefully selected machine ("An idiot can win on the right machine, but even a master cannot win on the wrong one") and it immediately begins spitting them out rapid-fire towards the top of the row of steel pins, targets, and as many flashing lights as the designers could fit in.  Hit the right targets, stop the slots at the right time, trigger all the events, and you're rewarded with a cascade of more silver balls.  Which, presumably, you just dump right back into the machine

I'm not the only one to find pachinko relaxing.  In fact, I don't think that quality is in any way rare in the city.  Others have waxed philosophically about what this says about the nature of the city and the people in it, but I don't have any philosophy to add--because I agree with them.  I suppose that, when I discovered that the easiest way to stop worrying and de-stress was to confront myself with as many different forms of sensory overload as possible, I was simply re-inventing something Tokyoites have known for years

You don't have to watch the whole vid, although I think it's a great little piece, but I did include it so that you could see a few pachinko machines in action

But, regardless, I have yet to be grasped by those particular neon claws.  Part of it is simply the finances--I learned long ago that you never go to a casino with the presumption you might win.  Casino gambling means being willing to spend some time slowly losing money but having fun doing it.  Money which I don't currently have to spare (plus the only time I tried, a few years ago when I was living here for a month, I lost $20 in as many minutes.  That's not a sustainable rate)

All in all, the temptation was never that great . . . until I started seeing these signs at parlors all over town

Yup, that's right.  Batman-themed pachinko

Oh Tokyo.  You know all of my weaknesses

So here we are.  If this is the beginning of a downward spiral of depravity that ends in sin and misery in the House of the Land of the Rising Sun . . . well, like everything else both good and evil in this world, you can blame Batman

Noah out

*Gambling is technically illegal in Japan.  The trays full of metal balls you get can, however, be exchanged for prizes like candy, toys, cigs, electronics, even household goods (presumably to be able to bring back home to the missus).  Of course, you can always instead ask to be paid in "genkin" in which case they give you a receipt saying how many balls you had . . . which you can then take to a barred window up three flights of stairs behind an unmarked door at the back of an alley two blocks away from the pachinko parlor . . . where you just might find someone willing to trade a few bills for that receipt.  But you didn't hear it from me ;)