Welcome To Atsugi - Part 2

I last left you with a portrait of Atsugi. Now, let me give you a snapshot of life out here.

Gotcha!

Here's a picture of one of my bosses, Satomi. Although she frequently declines the title of "my boss," I'm pretty sure she could drop the hammer should push come to shove. Fortunately for me, she's really great to work with. I can always go to her when I have questions about English grammar. Also, I discovered that she's kind of camera shy and doesn't like people taking pictures of her. Also fortunately for me, I was quick enough to get this picture before she pulled her jacket up over her head. Look at that great smile!

Also, you may notice the office she's standing in. This is the office in which I spend most of my time out here. Ok, not most of my time, but at times it does feel that way. Behind Satomi, you can see the window through which I spend a lot of time staring out blankly.

#1 Pachinko player

So, after stopping by the office to pester Satomi, I stepped out to visit one of the local Pachinko parlors with my friend Satoshi.  This was my first time going to one, and Satoshi was bent on showing me the wonders and joy of Pachinko (which, as of yet, I have not discovered).

At first, I conservatively fired one single Pachinko ball into the machine each play. I soon realized that this is not how Pachinko is done at all. I had over a thousand of those little suckers, and it was going to take me all night to go through them at that rate.  So, I cranked the trigger to the optimal strength and let it rip. I watched each ball bouncing and rattling all the way down the machine's face and out of sight. My eyes were darting this way and that, trying to follow of of my potential winners. Lights were blinking, things were beeping and buzzing, an animated character on the game screen was shouting at me in Japanese. Did I win? Did I lose? I had no idea. I just kept firing balls into the machine. After a while, I was just staring at the game in a daze, absorbing all of the lights and sounds, completely mesmerized. Occasionally, Satoshi would look over from his game and tell me "Hit the button!" after which, I would snap out of my daze and frantically start pounding every button I could see on the machine until I was satisfied it had some effect.

Blinking lights

It went on in this fashion for quite some time, until I had completely exhausted my bucketful of Pachinko balls. I looked over at Satoshi's winnings, which had already grown to about 4 buckets. As much as I tried to look like I was having a good time, I'm pretty sure I looked upset. Seeing that I was a bit soured on my first Pachinko experience, Satoshi gave me a bucket of his and commanded me to try again.

I did as I was told and, after another mesmerizing hour or so of watching blinking lights, I had accrued a whopping five buckets of Pachinko balls, which, standing next to Satoshi's stack of three measly buckets, made me feel proud and surely put a smug grin on my face.

So, we split the winnings and, each of us up about 800 yen (roughly nine dollars), bought some beers.

It was a good night. I can safely say that if I never set foot in another Pachinko parlor again, I'll probably be okay.