Japan's biggest obsession Pachinko

[YoshidaYui]

[Kablooie]

1. When I was young and living in Japan, I was pretty good at Pachinko.

I would usually leave with a nice prize I got with my winning pachinko balls.

Except the first time.
I finished with a couple of trays of balls and took them to the counter. They dumped them in the counting machine and gave me a handful of pens. I was confused. It seemed to me, that many balls was worth more than a handful of pens but I accepted them anyway. At home I tried to open the plastic bags, but they were sealed so tight, I had to use scissors and then all the pens were dry! I was upset until I read more about Pachinko parlors.

You can pick out prizes they have on display, but the most common thing to do with pachinko winnings is to accept some token item , like dried out pens, and then take them to a window around back. There, someone who sits behind an anonymous screen will pay large amounts for those tokens. It's illegal to gamble for cash in Japan, but it's ok to gamble for items. Selling those items for cash isn't a problem either.

[electric_blue68]

2. Ha! Brings back memories! Somehow [don't why, how it was introduced] my dad bought my mom a standing Pachinko machine!

Mystery about how they found out about it.
Non electronic. Nicely colored details. Fun!