Yakuza, ya crazy!

Well, I haven't done too much this weekend, primarily due to laziness, but yesterday I did force myself to go out for a little while and check out Ikebukuro, the electronics district (shown in picture). I'm not sure if it was because I got off at the wrong end of the train station or if I just wasn't looking hard enough, but it actually took me a little bit of time before I found a big electronics store. What I did find where lots and lots of arcades and pachinko parlors. For those of you unfamiliar with pachinko machines, they are like a cross between a pinball machine and a slot machine and they are ridiculously loud! You can you hear the pachinko parlors for practically a half a mile before you actually walk by them, which means you can almost always hear them because they are all over Tokyo. The really weird thing about pachinko is that because gambling in Japan is technically illegal you can't win money from the actual pachinko parlors. What you do win is a prize like a pen or a stuffed animal, but then you step outside the parlor, turn a corner, go to this little shop, and abracadabra your pen is suddenly worth $1,000 and they are happy to buy it off of you. Yeah, I told you it was weird. What's also pretty weird is that most of these pachinko parlors are run by the Yakuza, which is essentially the Japanese mafia, but no one seems to care.

Speaking of the Yakuza, you all may be interested to know that I am personally affected by them. And you want to know why? Because I have a one inch tattoo on my back. Oh my goodness, call the authorities. Traditionally in Japan only members of the Yakuza have tattoos, so having a tattoo is a sign of criminality and extremely frowned upon here. People with tattoos are often not allowed in public pools or Onsen, the Japanese hot springs, and it's particularly tricky to get around this in the Onsen because everyone is completely naked (it's separated by gender). Now, I understand being a little suspicious of a Japanese man with a full body tattoo or a sleeve, but come on, do I really look like I could be a member of the Japanese mafia? I think not, but you never know, maybe I'm a hardened criminal at heart.