Pachinko and Karaoke

I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the car – there’s always something peaceful about that.

I headed back towards Osaka, as I was planning to meet up with some friends from Niseko later in the day. I parked in a different (and hopefully cheaper) car park than last time, before heading back into the hustle and bustle of Dotonbori. It was still raining by the time I arrived, so I used the underground network of tunnels near Namba Station to get from the car to the pachinko parlour, where I met up with Mindo and some friends.

I’ve never really played pachinko before – thankfully, it’s quite hard to get into as a foreigner, as all the machines are in Japanese, and the environment is very ‘high stim’. Think of it as a cross between pinball and a slot machine: you get lots of small metal balls and control how hard they’re fired into the network of pins inside the machine. Depending on which slots they land in, different animations and storylines play on the screen. If you’re lucky (and it is purely luck), you might win more balls, which you can either use to keep playing or exchange for a prize.

Gambling for money is illegal in Japan, so you can only officially win a prize in pachinko parlours – think soft toys or a keychain. However, there’s nearly always a small nondescript shop next door that will exchange these prizes for cash, exploiting something of a legal loophole. The Japanese spend an astonishing 200 billion US dollars a year on pachinko – double the value of their entire car exports. Madness.

After pachinko, we went to an izakaya for a couple of beers, some fried food, and yakitori to line our stomachs before heading off to all-you-can-drink karaoke for three hours. The karaoke room was brand new and had a seriously impressive sound system. We sang and drank for the full three hours before I left to call a couple of friends from home and watch the F1, which started at midnight. I even ended up staying the night in a manga café, as I didn’t really fancy sleeping in the car in an underground car park.

Tomorrow I’m heading to the World Expo – I’ve pre-booked a ticket for 11am entry.