Pachinko

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pachinko, good! These loud electronic pinball-like machines are very common in Japan and I confess that I've had a go on one of these and let me be the first to tell you that you'll have more fun watching dry paint dry even more! I took a picture of this giant Pachinko place in Ikegami and someone who lives in there told my that it used to be a building with; bowling, cinema, arcade, shops and so on but was replaced with 'Arrow', the locals must of been pissed. As you walk into one of these you instantly lose your hearing temporarily as you are greeted by a few uniformed staff with disturbingly robot-like grins as they repeat a few animated sentences to you, you will then instantly notice the foul smell of cigarettes where you can end up with a saw throat if your not used to smoke and I'm joking. The goal is to increase the small metal balls that you purchase at the beginning and then trade them for money at the end. I fail to see how some of these customers or victims become interested in such hobbies but there is certainly a large demand, kinda like cigarettes.



Giant Pachinko building