It’s the pachinko parlors. Pachinko is a form of video game-esque gambling in Japan using small, silver, shiny balls. Ironically, according to my previous Japanese teacher, gambling is illegal in Japan. There are no casinos here. However, pachinko is legal because one is merely buying these silver balls and playing a game with them. Once done, the customer takes their remaining silver balls to the free-standing “pawn shop” next to the pachinko parlor to exchange them for money. It seems to me that it’s a bit of a grey area. Anyway, pachinko is very popular. Lines can be seen Sunday mornings wrapping around the pachinko parlors, just waiting for them to open.
Every time I see these lines, my heart breaks. I always pray that God would draw people to church like they are drawn to the panchiko parlors. I pray that Sunday mornings would see lines wrapping around churches, rather than the pachinko parlors. I pray that we would see the joy of knowing God radiating from people’s faces rather than the commercial glow of a pachinko machine. I pray that the sound that pours forth from buildings on a Sunday morning is voices lifted up in praise to Jesus rather than the painfully loud din of those silver balls rolling through the pachinko machines. God, please change Japan from the inside out!
contributed by Amy Cervone