Pachinko is Awesome!

Today was the first time I actually had somewhat of an agenda before heading out for the day. I was going to check out the famous fish market and then hit some temples before checking out one of the technology districts which I haven't seen yet.

By the time I made it to the Fish Market, I'd already missed all the action. Who knew it was over by 10 a.m.? So I took the subway to the closest stop to the Temples. To my surprise, between my stop and my destination was a HUGE shopping market. By this point I haven't purchased anything to bring home so I went crazy. Of course I was smart about it and did my bargain shopping. In the end I ended up with a sweet Kimono for myself and some smaller items for others.

After about two hours I finally made it to the Temples to take some pictures. I then ran around the market again and took more pictures. I haven't taken as many pictures as I thought I would through out my trip but I'm close. I think I'm up to something like 10 rolls.

After I finished there, I attempted to find the resale store I found the other day to buy some more stuff. I failed! It's so hard to find anything around here. Very few of the streets have names. They use a weird numbering system that I didn't even want to attempt to figure out.

I went back to my hotel for a few to drop off my stuff and to re-energize before heading out to test my new camera lens just after dusk. It sucks that I have to wait to get my pictures developed to see how well my low-light lens works. I'm actually thinking about converting to digital, once I can actually afford the camera that is.

I got bored taking night pictures after about half a roll; all the streets are starting to look the same anyway. So I decided to check out this pachinko craze that I've seen everywhere. I was happy to find out they had an instruction card in English so I could figure out what was going on much more quickly.

For those of you that don't know what pachinko is, it is sorta like pinball, but is completely vertical. The balls bounce around pins and you just watch them fall. (think of plinko from the Price is Right)

Anyway, a ball lands in a certain catcher, it triggers a slot machine spin wheel and there are all kinds of bonuses. Anyway, I played for like two hours and ended up winning about 1,000 JPY, or about $80. It was awesome. I guess it is pretty rare to win that much in one sitting.

The whole pachinko operation is actually kind of shady. When you are finished, they put the balls through a counter and you take the slip to the front counter. Instead of them actually handing you the money, they give you these golden squares that look like giant memory cards and you go outside and give them to what is considered a third-party operation who then switches them out for cash. A nice little loop-hole to make it legal.

I probably could have played all night but I had to catch my train so I wouldn't have to attempt to get a cab again.

So tomorrow is my last full day in Tokyo and I feel like there is so much I haven't had a chance to see. I'm not sure exactly what I'll get into but it's supposed to rain all day so picture-taking may be difficult. Either way I'm sure I'll make the most of it.