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Gamer in Japan Article 6 (Articles)

This week has seen a little gaming coming my way...

Though considering the current buzz around the Playstation 3 I am rather surprised at the lack of interest I have so far observed, obviously it'll go down a storm in Japan, hell, Sony could make a Microwave oven whose only purpose is to Microwave small bits of fluff you find in your living room & it'd go down a storm here, such is the strength of traditional Japanese support for Japanese products.

Not that I'm comparing any Sony consoles to a Fluff Microwave mind you. That would be silly.

But then I'm sure I could go on for several hours about the exciting possibilities of the PS3 being a Fluff Microwave...

Honestly, it intrigues me so.

Like a foghorn or Japanese Ambulance it calls to me, with its Fluffy majesty.

Hmm, I think I should move on! First up is something not strictly gaming related, unless you count brothels as games? I know the line between the two can be vague at times thanks to the efforts of some coders...

The story goes that my friend & I were taking in the beautiful Ice Sculptures in Susukino, Sapporo's answer to that human yearning for School Girls & Nightclubs to be located on the same street. Or in Susukino's case, the same 10 streets. Infact, I could describe Susukino as a smashing together of 5,000 purveyors of alcohol & a roughly proportionate amount of nudity for money purveyors.

The end result was that I turned around whilst my friend was taking photographs, to notice a very interesting advertisement, for what I assume to be a brothel.

Of course I found this particular piece of signage hilarious, my friend chuckled, but I don't think many people will appreciate this piece of artistic excellence on as many levels as I, because I am apparently quite strange.

The other piece of gaming that came my way came in the form of Pachinko. A type of gambling that is only legal because you win what appear to be several bars of gold, instead of money. (You later sell the gold on in some peculiar real-world extrapolation of every MMORPG I have ever been foolish enough to have hoped would break the tired "mine/kill/quest + talk = money/stats/boredom" equation)

Pachinko is obscenely popular in Japan; people will wait for hours outside a parlour in the hopes of grabbing a front window machine (These generally have a higher win rate to draw in the punters, whilst other machines will take your money & offer only an epileptic fit in return). The basic premise seems to be that someone thought Slot Machines didn't involve enough Pinball, so they stuck the two together. You first have to practice your launching (ala Pinball) by shooting metal balls into a central pocket, once you're on target, you place a coin into the machine & send it, hopefully, into the central pocket.

If you make it this far, the Slot Machine kicks in & you play the standard "line up the cherries" game, & as far as I can tell, if you manage that, the machine starts emptying metal balls into your lap, which you then trade for Gold Bars, which you then sell for actual money, which you then spend on some more Pachinko, if such is your fancy.

Of course my attempt at Pachinko being hindered by a smog of cigarette smoke (its almost mandatory whilst playing to smoke) I was simply doomed to failure. But I pressed on regardless, before realising my machine might not be likely to pay out in the near future as it was one of those inclined towards making up for all the money being handed out at the front of the parlour.

Alas, that is as much gaming as has graced my week, I've been somewhat busy making wooden boxes & assorted jewellery as part of my University course.

I hope you enjoyed the ever important question posed by the afore mentioned brothel, if not, I'll leave you with that tasty morsel of food for thought:

What feeling is in all of our skirts? Etcetera.

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