Hm, I don't think it has anything to do with popularity either. It's just something interesting and fun :laugh.

Well, that's definitely interesting. I want to see what the machine will look like and what songs will be used.

Oo.oO lmao oh wow wow....

how long till ayu gets arrested in a yakuza money ring? hahaha! ;)

Haha, when I go to Japan,, I'm
Gonna find it...

oh, i want some pics of this game with ayu

pachinko parlours aren't easy to get into as a foreigner. As far as I know, many of them really are run by yakuza, and they don't really want foreigners in their parlors because they're far less likely to play on the machines for an extended length of time. A few times we walked past the parlours and I would see parents in there with their kids lying on the floor with a blanket over them, sleeping, while the parents just played and played and played. It was really disheartening, I felt so sorry for the kids. :(

Also, unless you already have an understanding of the game, it wouldn't be very easy to get started. From what I heard, the way they get around the whole gambling thing is you have to buy buckets of the silver round balls, and then you take those balls and use them to play the machines. But that's if they'll sell you the balls, and like I said previously, the ones who run the system want players who will stay there for a long time so they can get the most money out of them.

I tried to go in myself in 2008 so I could look at the Gackt Gladiator machine, but I got so many evils from the staff that I didn't even try to ask how to play. It was obvious they didn't want me there at all. :(

It's a bit like the game center in Pokemon, haha.

You get coins/silver balls and you exchange them for prizes. Those prizes are then exchanged for cash at an "off site location" usually next door. (In Pokemon, it was run by the evil syndicate of the game)

I think there are laws against gambling for money which is why they do it in this weird roundabout way.

they are like 10 years late with this? lol It would've been much better for them (AVEX, pachinko owners) to do it during her peak in 2001 :/

I hope not many ayufans get obsessed playing with this! -____-

AKB48 has a group of girls sing a song advertising pachinko machines and they are very popular right now. :yes

Oh gosh! So it's true! I am working on a Pachinko machine maker and I hope I can get a sneek of what it'll look like! :D

That's... funny... xD

I want to try that machiiine!
I'm always so excited over the silliest things, hope I get a chance to go to Japan one day.

Thanks for telling!

I think it's kind of quirky and cool. When I finally get to Japan, I'll be looking for one of these for sure :P

thx ^^;

Most pachinko parlours I came across with in Japan were the most God-awful places in the universe... The stench of the ever-lingering cigarette smoke was ghastly, not to mention the mindless drones on the machines. I don't really recommend going there at all unless you're into that kind of atmosphere.

The stench of smoke is everywhere in Japan xD

But yeah, I don't play Pachinko. Mostly because I suck at it... I was talking to a friend and he spent like $200 playing and didn't win anything. I was like, "Why not just buy something useful?..." haha. But I guess that's what gambling is all about :P

Yeah, same with casinos here... once you win though, you have to stop playing.

-looks at past form of wallet with no money due to overplaying-

Wanna bet?

That's true, but I think the thing that irked me the most were the mindless drones that spend a ghastly amount of time at the pachinko parlour. Makes me feel more sick than the smoke does xD