Pachinko Quotes

“Why has pachinko swept Japan? It can hardly be the excitement of gambling, since the risks and rewards are so small. During the hours spent in front of a pachinko machine, there is an almost total lack of stimulation other than the occasional rush of ball bearings. There is no thought, no movement; you have no control over the flow of balls, apart from holding a little lever which shoots them up to the top of the machine; you sit there enveloped in a cloud of heavy cigarette smoke, semi-dazed by the racket of millions of ball bearings falling through machines around you. Pachinko verges on sensory deprivation. It is the ultimate mental numbing, the final victory of the educational system." - Lost Japan, Eng. vers., 1996”
― Alex Kerr

“Conventional wisdom nor scientific, mathematical prove of randomness in life could do nothing to deter human's curiosity for the unknown, however small the chance of a positive outcome maybe.”
― Vann Chow, The White Man and the Pachinko Girl

“She would always believe that he was someone else, that he wasn’t himself but some fanciful idea of a foreign person; she would always feel like she was someone special because she had condescended to be with someone everyone else hated. His presence would prove to the world that she was a good person, an educated person, a liberal person. Noa didn’t care about being Korean when he was with her; in fact, he didn’t care about being Korean or Japanese with anyone. He wanted to be, to be just himself, whatever that meant; he wanted to forget himself sometimes.”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

“The face of self-pity was universally understood.”
― Vann Chow

“Still he considered playing Pachinko the best investment of his free time, soaking in the local stench and bad breathe of other lonely Japanese people as an alternative way of blending into the colorful local scenes which he yearned to be a part of.”
― Vann Chow, The White Man and the Pachinko Girl

“The comedy sketches had all the subtlety of a water-buffalo fight. One sketch involved one of the comics playing an unusual Pachinko machine. The machine was constructed on the lines of a girl wearing only panties and a brassiere. The comic pulled the plunger and let fly. The ball shot to the top of the machine and then fell down into one cup of the girl’s brassiere. This triggered bells and lights and sparks, a panel slid open, and one of the showgirls shoved her unadorned breast through the large hole in the brassiere. The comic pulled the plunger again and the same thing happened again—the ball fell into the other cup and a panel slid back and another showgirl shoved her breast through the other hole. I say another showgirl, because you could tell—they weren’t a set. The comic then pulled the plunger for the third time, the ball fell into her panties, and after the bells, the lights, and the sparks, the crotch panel slid back, and a midget stuck his head out and yelled, “What do we care if we lost the war—we got Coca-Cola!”
― Jack Douglas, The Adventures of Huckleberry Hashimoto

“There are a lot of troubled young women in this world. We can't save them all.”
― Min Jin Lee

“They do not hire Koreans or Chinese, but that will not matter to you since you are Japanese.” Bingo nodded several times.
“Soo desu,” Noa agreed. (Lee 334)”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

“They do not hire Koreans or Chinese, but that will not matter to you since you are Japanese.' Bingo nodded several times.
'Soo desu,' Noa agreed (Lee 334).”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

“Man, life's going to keep pushing you around, but you have to keep playing.”
― Min Jin Lee

“You saw all sorts of things in a church where forgiveness was expected.”
― Min Jin Lee