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  • The madness of Tokyo's Pachinko - Akihabara

    Garry Thomas
    Nov 4, '13 12:27 PM EST

    16th October 2013

    Waking up in Tokyo during a fully blown typhoon is kind of fun and scary in equal measure. This is the start of my revisit to Japan, and it is day two. Day one was taken up with finding and checking into the Candelo Hotel in Ueno, and catching up on some jet lag whilst waiting out the typhoon rain. I did not bring a raincoat – dam.

    I have decided day two can not be rained off – so here I am, in Akihabara, it is blowing a gale and I have already seen a Japanese salary man blown-off his feet whilst trying to cross the station square. I retreat back to the station to wait this wind out. Now I am on the third floor in a Starbucks within the Akihabara station complex.

    The typhoon wind is dying down a bit but the damage is clear to see, bikes, tree debris and umbrellas strewn everywhere. What a mess. Still the Pachinko hall – Big Apple, is in full swing.

    It is 9.30 am and this five-storey palace of Pachinko is open for business, people are already stationed at their slot machines, gambling.

    This place is a freak-show, it is so loud my ears are hurting, the air is acrid with smoker’s air and the space has a stale smell – like an English pub used to smell like in the morning, before smoking was banned, when the lights were on. It is the whiff of the night before.

    I really don’t get this place, is it addictive? bright lights, noise, flashes and hand / eye movements, which are very automated – winning more tokens, which go back in to slots.

    From what I can see it is all about hand-eye co-ordination, when the video screen shows numbers you have to hit the corresponding numbered buttons, 1-2-3, 2-3-1, 3-2-1 etc.

    There are five floors of these things, each floor has a different slot / game experience. The volume is immersive and people sit at chairs that are bolted to the floor, they have no idea I am here, I could walk through here naked and they wouldn’t notice a thing.

    I can’t think of any European equivalent, slot-machines come close, but they do not compete on volume, or shear numbers in one space. I have been to Vegas and even that doesn’t come close.

    The air is so smoky and acrid my eyes water and because of the noise my ears occasionally have a shooting pain, I decide to leave; ahhh...breath, strangely the Tokyo street is calm and quiet, even in Akihabara – electric city. May be this is what it is all about – a stimulus overload so that the streets of Tokyo become calm and tolerable.

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    The endless Pachinko


    More Pachinko


    young guys play Pachinko - it is 9.30 am


    What is the attraction?




  • A refugee crisis in Iwaki, Fukushima…

    Garry Thomas
    Oct 29, '13 2:06 PM EST

    21st October 2013 For the next three days I get to see how the Yoshida’s have transformed their home to make way for two Fukushima refugee families who are occupying the top floor and annex of their three storey home. The refugees are from the nuclear fallout area of Hisanohamma, which is... View full entry



  • Iwaki city refugee and radiation crisis... and how people believe the Japanese mafia are controlling radiation clean-up workers at the Daichi nuclear power station…

    Garry Thomas
    Oct 29, '13 12:09 PM EST

    Weds 22nd / Thurs 23rd October 2013 As a student of architecture I first visited Iwaki city some 19 years ago when working with Yanai San, a Japanese Architect in Iwaki, Fukushima. This month I revisited the city once again to find out about the refugee crisis, radiation, earthquake... View full entry



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Architect, traveler and top 25 all time star architect of Grand Designs... follow me for architecture, design and globalism. Based London • Hereford

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