pachinko

I tried pachinko for the first time today. There's a good reason why I haven't bothered to step in a pachinko parlour until now -- they're smoky, noisy, and the fluorescent lighting hurts my retinas.

They're pretty depressing, actually. Rows upon rows of people put 1000 yen at a time into these machines, and they play with these little ball-bearings that shoot up into the machine. It's a bit like pinball without flippers, and 100,000 little balls to try and hit this tiny target. If a ball goes in, the screen shows a slot-machine type image.

As expected, I was very bad at it. And I don't think I'll bother going again.