Like many of the locals, the glowing, flickering lights tugged at my curiosity like an arcade lulls an 80s girl with a roll of quarters in the front pocket of her Levi’s. In Japan, people spend upwards of $200 billion a year playing their luck on the upright pinball game, Pachinko. These smoky parlors punctuate most city blocks. Cigarettes. Headphones. Smartphones. Each helps pass the time while navigating the neon flashes in cartoon shapes — some are suggestive animations — that dance across the screens to electronic clinks. Windfalls stream into plastic buckets in the form of small steel balls that can be exchanged for yen.

(photographs taken in Osaka, Japan at Pachinko Parlors)