Japanese culture: My foray into the pachinko world

There are so many pachinko parlours in Japan that I can't even begin to hazard a guess at how many there are in total. Some are multi-storey buildings dressed up like amusement centres.

There are apparently different types of pachinko machines so Takeshi picked the one that is easiest to understand for me to try (and I still don't understand how to win!).

Me and my pink machine called "Gold Hunter" (it was the exact same shade of pink as my cellphone!)

Step 1: Drop a 500-yen coin in and get all these ball bearings. True pachinko afficionados, however, do not play with 500-yen coins like me. They go to the counter and exchange 50,000-yen (S$700) for several trays of these ball bearings and plonk themselves in front of a machine for a few hours.

Step 2: Turn this knob and the ball bearings will shoot into the machine. How much you turn the knob determines the speed at which the ball bearings will enter the machine. Basically, people just sit there and hold the knob at the position with just the right pressure...too much or too little and the balls will land into these gutters by the sides.

After entering the machine, the ball then goes through a course similar to a pinball machine except that you can't do anything. If, by chance, the balls falls into a special pocket in the centre, you win a few more balls. If the number of balls indicated on the screen fall into the pocket during a certain time limit, you get "reach" (i.e. win a lot more balls, I think - cos I didn't get to this stage).

Takeshi and I laughing at how quickly the machines ate up our money. Our 1,000-yen each lasted barely 10 mins. You just sit there and hold the knob and the balls are spat into the machines at lightning speed. They go really quickly that way.