Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

It's for Pachinko.

Edit: We can't write that? Pa-chin-ko? You know, the vaguely pinball-like game that's so popular over here.

Ah, OK. I get it. Funny.

Thanks. I have the TV on behind me while I'm on the computer, so I only ever know it's own at the last minute when I hear a Godzilla roar. I've seen CMs for an ULTRA SEVEN Pa-chin-ko too, I think.

And while we're on the subject, am I the only person that doesn't "get" Pa-chin-ko? I can't understand it's popularity.

I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel awhile back [something like Tokyo uncovered] and they had a short segment on pa-chin-ko. If I remember correctly gambling is illegal in Japan [or at least in Tokyo] but some pa-chin-ko parlors covertly double as gambling spots by means of some loophole.

Instead of claiming the more typical prizes they showed a man get some small boxes [with what looked like a small coin or metallic seal on them] and then leave the parlor and head to a small window just around the corner where he exchanged them for cash.

that's it exactly. it's "undercover" slot machines.

well, the show on discovery showed the boxes, & they were cheap gold coins. You actually won the ball bearings out of the pachinko machine (much in the way you win coins from a slot machine), brought the bucket of ball bearings to a counting machine & dumped them in. The counting machine printed a ticket with the number of balls you won on it. you took this ticket to the prize counter & traded it for the cheap gold coins in a small box, then you took the boxed gold coins around the corner to a shady walk up window in an alley where they gave you cash for the coins.