Pachinko

Every time I've walked by a pachinko parlour, and have heard the sheer wall of noise, I have thought 'it's like the seventh circle of hell'. They are SO loud, and artificial, you can be walking down a perfectly nice, quiet street and suddenly you're interrupted by a barrage of beeps, rings, whistles, bells, and electronic music. Not to mention vast quantities of cigarette smoke, and countless lines of people sitting, vacant-eyed, pouring money into the machines.

For those of you fortunate enough not to know what pachinko is, it's kind of like gambling in a country where slot machines are illegal. You put in money, which buys you x number of little silver balls. You turn a dial to send your balls into the machine, and the balls fall, depending on how far you've propelled them. If the balls fall down a certain hole (once launched, you can't control them), you get a kind of 'slot machine' effect, where if you win, you are rewarded with more balls.

The reason pachinko is so popular is because, in fact, there are illicit ways to turn your winnings into cash. But it's a kind of back-door method. You can't do it on-site; it's against the law. There'd have to be some kind of motivation to keep so many people in there.

They really are ubiquitious in the Greater Tokyo area. There are so many of them. And they are so unappealing. But there are always loads of people in them... Even my sleepy suburb has several pachinko parlours. The machines often have different themes. There are also parlours with machines like slot machines (although real money doesn't come out), which are just as bright and obnoxious.

Look! Bon Jovi slot machines!!

Anyway, I did try pachinko once. It was mildly diverting; nice to try once, but doesn't offer the thrill of a) winning actual money, or even b) pinball, where there is some element of skill in your success. Also, being in such a smoky, bright and and cacophonous environment for more than twenty seconds is not good for any human. 

Kirin Yokohama Beer Village

Kirin Yokohama Beer Village is a 10-minute walk from Namamugi station (on the Keikyu line), in Yokohama. I recommend this place for its outdoor BBQ area. All-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink for two hours, for about 4000yen. So it's not dirt-cheap, but there's a friendly and convivial atmosphere when you go with a group of friends; beer flows freely. ^_^

Also, you can do a guided tour of the brewery. It's all in Japanese - not terribly interesting - but at the end, you get to sample two free (full-sized!) Kirin beverages of your choice, plus we got some Kirin snacks, and a can of Kirin coffee - just for going on the (free) tour! Nice. ^_^

You know it's summer in Japan when...

You know it's summer in Japan when you go to your local department store and they're selling bugs.

Apparently, collecting large bugs, especially crickets and beetles, used to be a popular summer pastime for children. I suppose it's the same in Australia; I used to do the same thing, only with various ant farms, collecting caterpillars, etc. But with increasing urbanisation, it's become increasingly difficult to find those insects in the wild. So you can buy them instead.

Anyway, my store's toy section had some tanks, selling the impressive-looking rhinoceros beetles (kabuto mushi) for a few hundred yen each. A few days later I went to the same store and the kabuto mushi had been replaced by stag beetles (kuwagata).

I heard you can fight these beetles, but I've never seen it done. ^_^

City Spotlight: Odaiba

Odaiba is an island created from reclaimed land; it's part of Tokyo. Actually, it's my favourite part of Tokyo. The main reason is that it's near the ocean, and it feels quite open - you're not surrounded on all sides by skyscrapers.

There are various attractions in the area, which I won't try to enumerate in full. Rather, I'll just tell you the things I've enjoyed there.

Getting there

Two nice ways to get to Odaiba are by boat or monorail. I think they're better during the daytime, if the weather is nice, but you can get some nice night views too.

To take the boat, go to 'Hinode Pier', in walking distance from Hamamatsucho station. You can take a boat to Ariake (where Tokyo Big Sight, the exhibition centre, is), or to Palette Town, both in Odaiba. It's 400 yen for adults.

To take the Yurikamome monorail, there are various stops; I use the one at Shimbashi station.

Both routes are really lovely and have good views of Tokyo Bay.

Palette Town

This is a kind of entertainment complex. It has a shopping mall (Venus Fort) with quite a funky interior. There are game centres, a car expo centre, and the giant Ferris wheel. I went on the Ferris wheel last night; they are having a Hello Kitty promotion, so the wheel is decorated with little bows, and you can enjoy Kitty herself bothering you with constant cutesy little comments as you ride.

To be honest, I was not that into this place; but if you are fairly new to Tokyo, I think it will be interesting.

Mirai-kan

Mirai-kan is a science and technology museum. It's interesting, if you have a passing interest (or more) in science. I recall that when I went here, the first exhibits we looked at were so technical as to be completely meaningless to me; however the rest of the museum proved interesting and intelligible. Hahaha... I liked seeing the display on the International Space Station.

Oedo Onsen Monogatari

Okay, some people describe it as kitsch, but I still enjoyed it. This is like a hot spring 'theme park', which is decorated with a theme of 'old-style Tokyo'. It's a great place if you want a hot spring that is tourist-friendly and unthreatening - there's some English signage, etc. You can also enjoy some sections with both males and females together, enjoy nice foot baths, and experience little fish nibbling your feet! 

I may dedicate a future post to describing this place.

Giant Gundam

I don't know when this Gundam will be taken down - soon, I believe - but as I mentioned in this post, there's a giant fighting mobile suit in Shiokaze Park at the moment. Shiokaze Park itself is rather nice for enjoying some harbor views.

Fuji TV building

In my opinion, this is better for people who know a lot about Japanese TV and TV stars; for me, the building was mostly interesting for its architecture.

Aqua City/Decks

Here you can see a fake Statue of Liberty. Hahaha... so, what this is, is a big shopping complex, which also has a movie theatre and Sega Joypolis, where I bought my Tails. ^_^ Sega Joypolis is basically a game centre, which also has a few rides and such; it seems a bit overpriced but I was attracted by the branding, being a Sega fan in my youth.

The best thing here is to sit at a restaurant on the deck and look over Tokyo Bay. It's especially beautiful at dusk. There is also a little man-made beach at the base of the building.

You'll hear a lot of people rubbish Odaiba beach, and it's certainly true that nobody dares touch the water - it is Tokyo Bay, after all. But it's atmospheric and quite beautiful. Last night I sat at a little cocktail place and had a Hawaiian cocktail, enjoying the balmy summer night and the lights of the Rainbow Bridge. Very very nice.

Hanabi

I mentioned in this post that there are several things associated with this summer season. Last night I got to enjoy three of them - eating watermelon while wearing a yukata, and watching fireworks.

The fireworks were at Nakagawara, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. (Really, the west of Tokyo.) We sat along the banks of the Tama river, with many many other people, and enjoyed a full hour of fireworks while drinking alcohol (no ban on drinking in public here!) and eating snacks.

Very summer. Very nice. ^_^

Cafe Colorado

Cafe Colorado is a coffee chain; it's not very cheap (520 yen for a cappuccino!) but I quite like their food, and there's nowhere else in my area with good coffee.

My local Cafe Colorado is quite funny; although it's a chain cafe, the staff always act like it's their own personal kitchen, and they're not very used to having guests. That is to say, if you order something, there's a lot of very slow-paced clattering of cups and quite a long wait. Most of the time when I go there, the proprietress is sitting at the counter with one of her customers, yakking away. The average age of the clientele seems to be about 65.

Anyway, these are all reasons for me to like it more, not less. Sometimes one wearies of faceless corporate chains (which is not to say I don't go to Starbucks almost every day, and sometimes twice a day ^_^).

Today I went to Cafe Colorado, and unusually, one half of the cafe was completely empty. I soon realised why: they had a little plastic container with crickets in it; I think it was their own pets which they had stowed into the corner. If you didn't know, crickets do not make a pleasant sound. These ones were very shrill indeed. I moved seats twice to get away from them.

Earthquake!

Small earthquakes are quite common here; I've experienced quite a few. But this morning I was woken just after 5am by the strongest quake I've felt. The windows were rattling; I sat up and moved into the middle of the room, in case stuff started falling on the ground. I wasn't scared, but I thought 'this one could be serious'. The ground was trembling strongly and the building was swaying.

Apparently it was a magnitude 6.5 quake. Not much damage occurred; the quake was stronger in Shizuoka and Aichi, a little west of here.

We also felt quite a significant quake on Sunday, apparently 6.9. That one didn't feel so strong to me, possibly because it didn't wake me out of a sleep! Or perhaps I was further from the epicentre. 

I find small earthquakes rather exciting, but that doesn't mean I want a strong one! The earthquake is all over the news today.