Word: pachinko
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...Pachinko-byo is an ailment new to the annals of medicine and peculiar to Japan. Its symptoms: blistered fingers, a sprained thumb and eyeballs that jiggle in their sockets like popcorn kernels tossed on to a hot griddle...
...cause of pachinko-byo is pachinko, a sort of poor man's pinball game. It has swept Japan like a virus in the last three years and brought the neon pallor of the penny arcade to the land of the rising...
...pachinko machine (cost: $20) stands upright to save space. From the owner the player buys a handful of small steel balls at 2 yen (½?/) apiece and drops them one by one into a small hole on the right side of the machine. With a spring-driven lever he flicks the ball upward; if it happens to fall into one of several nail-fenced cavities in the face of the machine, the player wins 10, 15 or 20 steel balls. Those he can trade for cigarettes, candies or a variety of other inexpensive prizes (law forbids prizes worth more than...