![]() ![]() While the characters are fictitious, the historical circumstances in this book are not. It follows four generations of a Korean family through the political turmoil of Japanese colonization, the hardship of wartimes, seeking a new and better life in Japan, and witnessing the home they left become divided into two countries they hardly recognize. ![]() Pachinko is a historical family saga set in Korea and Japan throughout the 20th century. Pachinko parlours are incredibly noisy, smokey, and filled to the brim with 1/7 Japanese adults playing regularly. What we found incredibly surprising is that pachinko generates annual revenues of about 23 trillion yen, or 203 billion USD, which is more than the combined gambling revenue of Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore. While gambling is illegal in the country, pachinko manages to bypass this prohibition by allowing players to win prizes, which are exchanged outside the parlour for cash. ![]() Pachinko is a kind of vertical pinball game played by adults in Japan. Published in 2017, Pachinko generated a lot of buzz, but it wasn’t until I first walked into a Pachinko parlour in Tokyo that I knew I had to read this book. For Japan, I chose Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. My plan while travelling is to read one book related to each nation we visit. ![]()
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