Being a tourist

Its been a while since I did any touristy things in Tokyo. This week my friend's brother and his wife are visiting Tokyo for the first time. Last night I had the opportunity to share with them my take on Shinjuku and even tried something with them for the first time, pachinko. I've actually never played pachinko since I've been in Japan. I've always wanted to try, just to say I've done it, but the abundance of second hand smoke and obnoxiously loud noises always deterred me away. Luckily my friend's brother also wanted to see what pachinko was all about and I finally saw myself stepping in the world of competitive pachinko'ing. The basic goal is to get small metallic balls into a small hole while trying to match various characters on the screen or something along those lines. If successful, you get more balls that you can either extend your play or turn it in for a "prize" which usually equates to cash. While walking through the parlor, I saw some people with buckets filled with these balls. That was pretty crazy. I only spent about 10 dollars worth at the pachinko parlor which lasted for approximately 3 minutes of play. It was an interesting experience but I'm pretty sure I won't be going to another pachiniko place anytime soon.

Anyways, here are some pics random pics of the night -