Expensive Candy

Japan is full of places where people can throw away their money very, very quickly. I hate these places, but many Japanese people love them.

I think there are basically two types of these places: gambling and games. The gambling places are called Pachinko halls or parlours. I've only been to a few of these, as your money disappears at nearly the speed of light. When I first arrived here, I was intrigued by the game centres, where there are many ways to lose your money at a slower rate.

For example, you can play a game where you control a mechanical scoop, which picks up (usually zero) small objects, puts them on a moving tray, which slowly pushes more small objects towards the edge of the tray and down a chute into your possession. More often than not, the scoop doesn't pick anything up, or if it does, the items fall of the moving tray back into the original pile of objects, or if they do stay on the tray, it takes you an hour to push a few small objects into the chute.

To make a long story short, you end up spending $20 on a couple of mini Kit Kats.