Japanese

"Pachinko"

Pachinko is a combination of slot machine and pinball machine.
First of all, the player chooses his favorite pachinko machine out of numerous machines in a pinball parlor and sits in front of the pachinko machine.
He will start game by flipping tiny steel balls using automatic hammer.
The purpose of this game is to get small balls as many as possible by throwing balls into designated halls. He will adjust the strength of hits by a handle so as to make speed of the balls just as it should be. Pachinko used to a simple game in this way. However, when "deji-pachi" was invented, the mainstream of pachinko was replaced by such a high-tech game. It is similar to a slot machine. You can get premium number of balls if you match three pictures or figures. When you enter a pachinko parlor, you should be overwhelmed by the numerous pachinko machines and typical noises.

Players exchange balls for articles such as snacks, cigarettes, cosmetics, CDs etc. in proportion as the number of balls he gets. In Japan, to exchange gifts for cash in the pachinko parlor is prohibited by law. Therefore, they have a small booth outside of pachinko parlors to exchange token for cash.

There is at least one pachinko parlor in an amusement district of every train station. You can find it easily because it is decorated with too much flash lighting. Even in the countryside, we can find huge pachinko parlors with spacious parking lots like shopping centers.

Some of enthusiastic pachinko players make a line outside of a parlor in the early morning in order to get their favorite pachinko machines or new released machines. Also there are players who earn their living by pachinko. According to the leisure white paper of 2005, the number of pachinko and pachi-suro(pachinko slot) player has increased five hundred thousand compared with the previous year and become 17.9 million in total.
Most of the players are men, but women players have also increased because pachinko parlors started to provide non-smoking corners and women-only sections. This year women only pachinko parlor will be opened in Osaka. In addition, the variation of pachinko is increasing that they adopt popular animation into the pachinko machine and collaborate with TV drama.
The pachinko world is getting hot more and more in future.

End

2006/4/27