SOURCE: Inside the Travel Lab
DATE: Wed, 10 Oct 2018 08:27:57 +0000
FULL PUBLICATION: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InsideTheTravelLab/~3/E7_cuEl6ZCI/

Tendrils of smoke curl and float past scarlet pillars. Fingers fold white paper into prayers. Heads bow, hands wash in water, and the soft, sonorous chime of a gong, flecked with gold, reverberates through the crowd. This is the Asakusa Shrine, or Sanja-Sama (the shrine of the three gods,) in the heart of pulsing Tokyo. And right around the corner, I found worship of a different kind. Heads bowed, sirens blazing, flickering lights in fuchsia and fluorescence. This is the whir and buzz, the whizz and blaze of Pachinko: a Japanese pinball arcade where silence is forbidden and tranquillity long since forgotten. Originally from Inside the Travel Lab.