The Tokyo metropolis is riddled with miniature casinos for playing Japan’s favorite gambling g
The Tokyo metropolis is riddled with miniature casinos for playing Japan’s favorite gambling game: pachinko. Pachinko is a funner alternative to western slot machines, where you drop a ball bearing through a series of pins, hoping that it lands in a particular hole. Pachi-slot casinos (which also house western slots) are just about everywhere in Tokyo. Far from tiny establishments, these casinos are typically 4 or 5 stories tall, often containing only pachinko machines on all those floors. I had been meaning to try out pachinko since I got here, but was scared off in my first two attempts, since I couldn’t figure out how to use the machine. Needless to say, pachinko is a Japanese-only experience. But I finally got up the nerve to try again after watching a local use the machine. Here’s what to do if you find yourself in a similar situation: 1. Put a 1000¥ bill in the bill acceptor in the top left of the machine (or more if you’re a big spender). 2. Push one of the buttons above the spinner nob on the bottom right. This releases a number of ball bearings which will fall into a dish. There were two buttons on the machine I used, red and blue. I pushed the red one, but I’m not sure what the difference is. 3. Spin the nob to pull balls from your dish into the machine. A soft spin throws the ball softly into the machine, a hard spin throws it stronger to the other side of the pins. In terms of strategy, it seemed like I did better when throwing a number of balls into the machine at once, since they could collide with one another and knock each other into the correct hole. But who knows if that really did anything. You should definitely try out pachinko in Japan, it’s a pretty fun experience. Blog about Japan? Share your blog with more Japan enthusiasts. via on -- source link