パチンコ。ニホンジン。セーカツ。

Because of the storyboarding presentation, I had a reason to go into a pachinko store and play pachinko for the first time. I had been passing by different pachinko stores everyday in my daily routine during the first 3 months being in Japan.  And finally I walked into one last week. Since the entrances of all the pachinko stores I had seen were all automatic doors, I could always hear loud music from within the stores whenever the doors happened to open when I walked pass. But it was not until I walked into the store myself when I realized how loud the music was and how heavy the smell of cigarettes was. I thought that basically all pachinko players were male; however, I entered the store at the same time as several middle-aged women.  I also saw some bikes with seats for children parking right outside the pachinko stores. There might be some housewives who would like to spend their free time playing pachinko. It is not an entertainment for male only. But it is apparently an activity for adults only since all pachinko stores have signs warning that anyone under 18 is not allowed to enter the store. Sometimes on my way to school in the early morning, I can see people including both men and women lining up in front of a pachinko store.  There are always enough pachinko machines in the store for everyone. But they are lining up in order to play the “good” machines with which players have more chances to win. These “good” machines usually locate near the doors so that the sound of pachinko coming out of the machine and excitement of the players can attract more players from outside.

However, I think one can never understand pachinko and pachinko players merely by standing or walking around in the store. So I participated, and I finally understand how the players can bear to stay playing in such a noisy and smelly place for hours and hours. I was excited and nervous to a certain point as a first time player while the store manager was trying to introduce me the whole process of playing pachinko. Once I started turning the switch of the machine and pachinkos started bouncing around in the machine, the pachinkos had my full attention and I no longer felt that the place was noisy and smelly since I was completely attracted by the pachinkos. Maybe this is the reason why many people like spending time playing pachinko. It requires players’ full attention; and thus they do not have the mind to think about anything else. In this way, players may be able to relax and thus release stress from study, work or daily life as pachinko offers them another world to live. The machine that I played was one that used 1 yen pachinkos which cost the least in stores comparing with 2 yen, 4 yen and 5 yen pachinkos. These machines accept paper bills only starting from 1,000 yen to 10,000 yen. With 1000 pachinkos to start with, I played for less than 15 minutes with 998 pachinkos left. So I thought I might be able to get 998 yen cash back. But the exchange rate is different before and after playing. For each pachinko falling into the holes inside the machine, one to three pachinkos will be won. Therefore, even though a pachinko costs 1 yen at the beginning, it might only worth one third of 1 yen at the end when the number of pachinkos is exchanged into store points. As a result, I receive two mini Yakult drinks, a few candies and a small instant cheese fish sausage. Besides, I received a small bookmark like stick along with the snacks with which I was given 500 yen cash back from a little window counter right outside the back door of the store. So I spent 1000 yen cash and got 500 yen cash and some snacks back. I do not understand how everything turned out to be like this, but I assume that there is a complicated system based on which the pachinko stores operate.

I was lucky enough to get to know a part-time worker at the pachinko store who graduated from Kansai Gaidai two years ago with an English major. He was the only staff working in the store who is able to speak English. The manager asked him to help me out as soon as he was told that I am a foreigner. This Kansai Gaidai alumnus was thinking to quit his part time job at the pachinko store even though he had been working there for a month only. He did not want to continue the job because it was a boring one with the lowest hourly wage. According to him, most staffs except managers working in the pachinko store are young adults who generally work 7 hours a day.  This job is boring because all staffs are required to greet customers and keep a track on the pachinkos they won with big energetic smiles all the time.  Pachinko stores do not open 24 hours a day. The one I went to opens from 10am to 11pm every day. During the half hour talking with this part-time worker next to the back door of the store, I observed that more than 10 people walked through the back door of which 80 percent are male.  

After experiencing pachinko myself, I believe that the pachinko phenomenon in Japan should not be interpreted merely from its surface. I wish I can interview regular pachinko players and store staffs if I had the chance to know more about the pachinko culture.

http://www.pachinko-play.com/en/navi/about_pachinko.html

奈良。小学校。秋季大運動会。

 I wondered if sports meetings in Japan are like those in animations, so I went to see one myself. One that took place in a primary school in Nara. It was on a Saturday morning in October. I woke up before 7am and managed to arrive in the primary school before 9am. When I was still wondering the reason why I had to get there so early since the sports meeting would not start until 10am, I understood immediately the moment I saw how crowded the playground was and how difficult it was to find a spot for sitting. It was because that was my host parents’ grandchild’s sports meeting that I was able to enter the primary school as everyone visiting that day must have a name tag with them that clarify which family they were in for security reasons. The playground that day was basically blue except the central part since each family had one big blue plastic mat to sit on. All families were sitting next to each other, and it was also one of the situations in Japanese life in which one is required to take off shoes before walking on the mats.  In addition, if one had to walk pass other people’s mats before getting to his or her own, then one must say “excuse me” constantly before he or she enter the area of his or her own mat. The area of a family’s mat symbolized the territory of that family for that period.  This might be reason why parents and grandparents were willing to wake up and arrive much earlier that day in order to put their mats on desirable areas. A desirable area that day was one where good pictures could be taken and competitions could be watched closely and clearly.

                Based on how crowded the playground was and the fact that almost all family members participated, I assumed that the sports meeting in primary school is considered a family event in Japan.  Later, I found out that there are four events in primary school every year in which parents and other family members will probably show up. There is the culture festival every February and the sports meeting every October. These are two primary school events in which families of all students will participate. And then there is the ceremony for new students every April and one for graduated students every March. In these two events, families of the first graders or the six graders will show up.

                Simply put, the primary school sports meeting can be regarded as a collective activity of primary students in which they compete with each other base on athletics skills. However, it is much more than that in Japan. It is a complicated system operated under the influence of parents, teachers and the national education department and even the change of Japanese society. There were four groups in the sports meeting each represented by its own color, and each group had its own winning slogan. At first, I thought that those four groups were simply four different classes, but at the same time I wondered why there were only four classes in the whole school and each one with so many students. But it turned out that I was completely wrong.  Students in the same class were first divided into four groups, and then students in the same group in each class come together to form one single big group. In other words, one big group was formed by students from different classes in different grades. This also meant that students in the same class were competing with each other since they were divided into different groups. This might be an action to create the maximum equality and friendliness between groups since one important aspect of the sports meeting was that the result would not matter as long as the students learned how to corporate with each other and try their best. It was very interesting for me to find out that in Japan, a country where people are always encouraged to try very hard, words like “ganbatte” should be avoided in public announcements during the sports meeting in the recent decade. The reason is simple. Parents do not want their children to bear more pressure by hearing “ganbatte” from their teachers since their children are already trying very hard. Personally, I do not think this is a good change and it may be explain the reason why the young Japanese generation is so spoiled in a way.

                There was no reward for the first group which won the most points. It was only one school announcement about which group was the first followed by claps by everyone. At the end, every student received the same gifts no matter what group they were in. Again, the winner or the loser was not emphasized or even paid attentions to in the sports meeting. And the final results were counted towards the groups instead of individuals. Recently, students were taught to value study much more than sports. As a result, the sports meeting became an occasion for students to have fun which is not seriously considered since its results do not affect one’s academic performance and exam ranking.  But I personally think that physical health is as important as academic performance.