Seasons are changing and I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas. It’s definitely getting colder… cheap thermals from Uniqlo are a life saver… and I actually went out and bought a humidifier for the first time in my life O.O eheh but it’s all a welcome change for me.
Work has been relatively busy up until last week but I managed to catch the train into Tokyo a few times on the weekends. In Harajuku I just walked around a bit, specifically up and down Takeshita Dori… found the Rapha bike shop I’ve been wanting to visit for while now so I got that off my checklist. Also, walked down Omotesando through the shopping area but everywhere was so crowded…. didn’t do much shopping, only observing everything around me. Shibuya was another crowded area… just out of the train station I had to cross that really busy intersection that everyone talks about. Grabbed a drink at Starbucks and watched all the other people crossing the intersection for a little while. Walked around a bit more… still so much shopping and so many people…
And here’s a couple of other photos from around Yokosuka. Right outside the gate to work there popped up a little place called the Oyster House so of course I had to try it with friends. My coworkers and friends treated me to dinner since I’m currently shifting projects at work… it was so awesome! Seafood, beer, wine!
Also, one of my friends is a self-proclaimed pachinko pro and I’ve always wanted to just learn how to play. There are a ton of different pachinko places, and each person has their favorite place/machines. Everytime you walk by one and the doors open, all you hear is very loud noises and smell a lot of cigarettes… (so bring ear plugs and wear a mask). So, after walking around to look at all the different machines… my friend and I sat down at the AKB48 machine (girl group out of Akihabara)… each of he machines has charts on the top showing how many times people have won on it and the pay out percentages but this being my first time (and I can’t read Japanese) I just sat next to my friend. Just fair warning… pachinko, like any other form of gambling, can be expensive! You basically insert your money into the machine, then push a button which releases ¥500 worth of balls at a time. Then all you have to do is turn the knob on the bottom right corner to release the balls and start playing… the more you turn the knob, the stronger the balls shoot out (this is where a person could argue some skill is involved). From there, it’s all left up to chance as you watch the balls hopefully make their way into the middle slot at the bottom center of the machine. As all this is going on, music is playing, people are smoking, noise noise noise everywhere, music videos playing on your machine, lights flashing…. ahhh just all around craziness… and of couse I didn’t really know if I was winning or losing since I didn’t know what was going on on the screen… but judging by the rate at which I was having to dispense more balls… I was losing. So in the end… ¥10000 lasted only an hour. haha, needless to say I’m done playing pachinko for a while. It is not uncommon for people to lose ¥50000 in one night only to win ¥60000 the next (my friend hehe) but when I asked the “pro” if he’s ahead or behind after all is said and done, he said almost everyone is behind… so consider that a fair warning for all you would be pachinko addicts :P. Another thing I’m not sure about is who runs some of these pachinko places… but that will take more investigating I think.
