Play me

Our last night in Kyoto so we went exploring. We came across an arts centre down by the river where bands were playing for free. The organisers had set up a home made pachinko game. Pachinko (pinball) and slot machines are huge in Japan and you see enormous, noisy, neon lit Pachinko Parlours everywhere, populated by rows of players with glazed expressions.

This was a really sweet version - you had to push a golfball with a stick and if you succeeded in getting it in the right hole twice you got a free beer. I managed once so we had to pay but at 200 yen a can (less than £2) it was definitely the cheapest beer I had in Japan! The band was great - a group of young guys on drums, guitar, violin and what looked like a very complicated Japanese stringed instrument. I tried to capture that on camera but they had so much energy they moved way too fast.