Pachinko & Parasites / パチンコと寄生虫

This weekend my brother-in-law Jun was coming to visit from Aomori for our friend's wedding on Sunday. I took Saturday off from work to show him around Tokyo while my wife was working. She suggested taking him to a Maid Cafe in Akihabara for lunch (which she thought I might enjoy as well). I was to meet him at Tokyo station at 11:08am at a waiting area called "Gin no Suzu" (The Silver Bell).

今回の休日、僕の義理の弟潤が青森から来ました。日曜日に私たちの共通の友達の結婚式があるからです。嫁が東京駅の「銀の鈴」の所に迎えにいって、そのあと、秋葉原のメイド喫茶でも連れて行ってあげたらと言われました。（多分僕も喜ぶと思って、提案したんじゃないかな）。

The Silver Bell Waiting Area

銀の鈴

Once I met up with him, we went straight to Akihabara to go in search of Maid Cafe. I figured on taking him to the popular @home Cafe which has gotten a lot of television coverage and also gets a lot of foreign tourists. However, when we got off the train at Akihabara, there wasn't a single maid to be found anywhere. Usually, there are many girls in maid costumes advertising the various Maid cafes right outside the station. I wonder if the random stabbing incidence a few weeks back had anything to do with the disappearances of the maids. We finally did see one but she was adversiting a "Cosplay" - (costume play) shop. A shop where you can buy maid outfits and other costumes of anime characters. And being too embarrassed to ask where the Maid Cafes were, we decided to forego that activity and headed to Ueno to check out a place that Jun was really looking forward to going to. The Pachinko Museum.

潤と会って、秋葉原に行きました。でも駅を出たらいつも居るはずのメイド達、誰一人も居なかった。先月の秋葉原殺傷事件の影響かどうか分かりませんが、本当にメイドたちは見当たらなかった。駅の近辺を歩き回ったら、一人のメイド発見、でもコスプレの店の宣伝をしていた。メイド喫茶は何処にあるのかを聞くのも恥ずかしいから、行くのを辞めました。潤がどうしても行きたい所があって、次向かったのは上野駅。目的地はパチンコ博物館。

Sign for the Pachinko Museum

The museum itself was located on the third floor of a building which also held the offices for the pachinko makers. Unlike the mahjong museum I went to last month, you were not allowed to take pictures of the machines on display. There were about two or three rooms featuring old pachinko machines from the kind where you flip one ball at a time to the machines Jun said he was hooked on in high school. I tried out the one ball at a time machine but didn't score well and the game was soon over. The entire museum can be gone through in less than thirty minutes. However, near the entrance, you could play at some of the newer machines (newer, still be machines from the '70s or '80s.) but where the balls are flipped automatically. Jun seemed most happy here and we probably could have spent all day there as there was no charge for the machines. I also tried my hand at it but found that I have no talent for it.

パチンコ博物館は一つのビルの三階にありました。先日行った麻雀博物館と違って、館内の写真撮影は禁止でした。二、三部屋位しかないので、３０分もあれば全部見れます。展示されてるのは古いパチンコ台ばっかりです。最初の１９４５年から８０年代モデルまで。手打ちの一台を体験しました。僕は下手でしたな。入口の方に無料で体験出来るパチンコ台もあって、潤はそこで一番嬉しそうな感じでした。

Jun also wanted to have his picture taken with the museum's curator.

潤も館長と一緒写真も撮りたかったので。。。

After enjoying ourself at the Pachinko Museum, we then headed off to Meguro. There was a place that I wanted to check out and Mikako had no desire to come with me but Jun said he didn't mind. We were going to world's only parasitological museum. Yes, a museum of parasites!　And it's free too!

パチンコを満喫したあと、目黒に向かいました。僕も昔から行きたかった所があって、美香子が一緒に来てくれない為、潤を無理やりに連れて行って、目指したのは目黒寄生虫館。入場料も無料！

Intestinal roundworm found in the small intestines of

humans.

The above pictures are of a tape worm that came out of a person who ate sushi of trout. The length of the worm is 8.8 meters (28.87 ft). That's disgusting!

上に写ってる写真も人間の体から出た寄生虫です。その人が鱒の寿司を食べて、三ヶ月後に便と一緒出たそう。長さが８．８メートル。気持ち悪いですね。

One must be careful of parasites or this could be you (only if you're a guy though)

寄生虫によう注意。（特に男のほう）

Carriers of parasites.

寄生虫を運ぶやつら。

After spending our time here, we then went to lunch. Oh, but I also bought the English version of small book about these parasites.

ここを見たあと、ランチ食べに行きました。あっ、記念に寄生虫の本も買いました。

I'll save the lunch post for another time.

ランチのネタはまた別のポストで。