heaven in the hell of pachinko
Pachinko, the Japanese National Slot Machine. The idea is to stuff handfuls of small balls into a machine and try and get them into the appropriate holes. A cross between a slot machine and a pin ball. Easy enough. Add an overdose of dazzling lights and rave music louder than a The Who concert and you might get some idea of what Pachinko hell is all about. To claim your prize, you stick all the balls you managed to hole into a machine that counts them up for you. A Pachinko cashier them doles out whatever amount of chips you are deemed to have won. You can change these chips into Yen at a little hut-like structure outside the hall. Seeing that you can’t take any photos there, we were almost flat broke and that we’re hardly what you’d call Don Juans, we poured our last 1,000 Yen into this God of Games.
We plonked ourselves down beside a local who was a cross between President Koizumi and Richard Gere – he was raking it in and it seemed like the best place to sit – and we started playing. Playing and winning! There was no way we were gonna pull anything that night, but we did make find our little paradise in Pachinko hell... and the money to stuff out guts with a delicious meal that night...
We plonked ourselves down beside a local who was a cross between President Koizumi and Richard Gere – he was raking it in and it seemed like the best place to sit – and we started playing. Playing and winning! There was no way we were gonna pull anything that night, but we did make find our little paradise in Pachinko hell... and the money to stuff out guts with a delicious meal that night...
