Pachinko? What's the Point?

March 1, 2004 2:10pm (Nagoya)
Feb 29, 2004 12:10am (Ottawa)

My trip to both the Nagoya Castle and an Internet cafe were cancelled on account of rain yesterday.
However, after the rain let up I decided to explore a bit. I ended up at a pachino parlor.
Pachinko is a kid of gambling game in a sort of arcade. Basically if you've seen "Plinko" on The Price is Right, then you've seen Pachinko. Except Pachinko uses little metal balls instead of plastic disks.
Anyway, Pachinko is a very popular game in Japan. It's almost in every anime, and most of my friends told me to try it while I was here. So it was on my list of things to try.
VERDICT: Pachinko Sucks!!!
The gaming place itself is packed tight with machines making a horrendous amount of noise, and glassy-eyed Japanese men and women staring blankly at the game as little metal balls bounce down the screen in front of them.
The smotke is so think you can feel it seeking through your skin, and the entire place reeks of desperation and obsession.
Few things I've ever experienced have been as disappointing as that particular place. I can't help but wonder why so many of my anime favorites waste their time, energy, and money on that nonsense.
Ladies and gentleman, if you really don't want your money, just send it to me. The act of licking the stamp for your envelope will provide more entertainment to Pachinko.
I went to a photo shop with Leisha to get some pictures she took copied to CD. They gave her several cans of some drink we could not identify.
The stuff was called Chun-Hi, and it had a picture of an orange on it. One sip and I tasted something odd in it. Leisha and Michelle assured me it was not alchohol, so I drank the entire thing in about 10 seconds (340 ml).
Later my room-mate saw me about to drink a second one and commented "Starting early are you?" Apparently the girls were wrong. Chun-Hi is very alchoholic, "Jet fuel" as my room-mate called it. So now that we know that Michelle is impressed with my alcohol tolerance, and I'm horrified that I drank it so fast.
So there you have it. In Japan just a few days and already gambling and drinking.
What am I coming to?