McCoKorea

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Cat Cafes in SEOUL!!

After returning from Tokyo, I started hearing rumors about a Cat Cafe in our very own town. And when our friend Brandon came to Korea for a visit, we thought it was as good a time as any to check it out.

The unique thing about this cafe was the Cat Profile...a list of each cat in the cafe complete with their picture and small description of each cat's personality. For example, "Lucy is troublemaker", "Mong is always closing eyes". There was also a helpful family tree to tell us who was married and who was just crushing.

There were cats everywhere!

These are the house rules.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Japan Part III: Pachinko

A few years ago we hosted a Japanese exchange student named Taki for a month. While we were in Japan, we reconnected with Taki, and he was kind enough to take us on a tour of his quaint hometown of Tokyo.

One of the highlights of the day was playing pachinko. Pachinko is sort of hybrid between pinball and a slot machine with a good dose of Japanese non-sequitur weirdness mixed in. To play, you buy a bucket of tiny metal balls, load them into a tray on the machine, and then you twist a knob to launch the balls. If your ball lands in the right spot, you get to play a mini-game, like slots, and if you're lucky you'll be rewarded with more balls. After that--this is where the true test of skill comes in--you just keep holding the knob in the same position, launching balls and playing slots until your ball supply is depleted.

Walking into a pachinko parlor can be pretty overwhelming to the senses: the din of cascading balls of 100 pachinko machines sounds like never-ending slow motion car crash. But on top of that, all sorts of imaginable noisemakers are constantly being triggered when the balls land in special slots--sirens, bells, strobe lights, slot machines, hypnotic anime videos, and looped songs featuring unnaturally exuberant high-pitched voices. A pachinko parlor is as loud as a dog cafe is smelly.

Not to brag too much, but I think I must be some sort of pachinko prodigy. My ability to turn a small knob 3 inches to the right and occasionally push a flashing button are unmatched. Taki was so amazed at my preternatural talent that he scooped all the balls he was playing (and losing) on his machine and invested them into mine. He sure picked a winner in this race, because by the time I was ready to call it a day, I had quadrupled the number of balls I started with.

Now it was time to cash in. Like Korea, gambling is illegal in Japan. But also like Korea, Japan has come up with several loopholes around this obstacle. A pachinko player cannot directly exchange their balls for cash at the pachinko parlor. Instead, when you exchange your balls, you get a choice of prizes, not too dissimilar from what you'd be able to get after a really good day of skeeball at Chuck E. Cheese's. My "prizes" were potato chips, candy, and a cookie.

After loading me up with snacks, the clerk pushed a secret button, and 4 little tokens popped out of a secret dispenser on the counter. We were instructed to go outside, and walk a couple blocks and into a dark alleyway, and find a little kiosk with a line of hardcore pachinko players also looking to cash in. At the kiosk, you can sell your tokens for a fistful of yen. We were delighted to find that each token was worth 1000 yen, ($10) which meant that we won 4000 yen on 1000 yen gamble.

We immediately went to izakaya and blew all of our winnings on skewered meat.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Japan Part 2, Cat Cafes

A couple of weeks ago, Chris and I traveled to Japan. It was a great vacation full of delicious food, wacky purple haired grandmas, new and old friends, and the best part of the whole trip....Cat Cafes.

While wandering down the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo, we passed a sign outside that was all in Japanese, but had pictures of cats all over it, and a map. We decided to follow the map to find the cats, but I was sure we were going to find a pet store or a pet hospital.

When we arrived at the building, we saw a sign for "Cat Cafe, 5th Floor". We got in the elevator and I started to hyperventilate. Could this be real? A cafe with LIVE cats?! While thousands of businessmen rove the streets for a venue to oogle LIVE girls, I was drooling at the chance to get my hands on some LIVE cats.

At a cat cafe, which is currently a popular phenomenon in Tokyo, you pay $5 to enter and get to enjoy your cup of coffee in a room full of cats and kittens. Upon entering, you are instructed to disinfect your hands and then pick your toy from a pile of feathers, bells and balls.

The cats were lying all over the room---just waiting to be pet. We spent an hour moving from cat to cat, and I don't think I let my smile drop the entire time. After 8 months of living without our Honeybucket, it was so nice to be around cats again.

When we got home from Japan, I learned that my family cat, Silverbell, had passed away. I'd like to think we went to the Cat Cafe for a reason...Silverbell was sending her Japanese brothers and sisters to say goodbye for her.