LUGNET News : ~330/japan


Cary Clark / japan

New Year’s is a really big deal in Japan. Everyone travels home for New Year’s, and the crowds at the temples and shrines on New Year’s eve are incredible. My nephew’s girlfriend grew up in Kyoto, and took us around to see the sights that evening. She had a list of local festivities to choose from, which included a free market (remember that the Japanese have trouble with ‘l’ sounds and pronounce them ‘r’ instead) located in an underground mall next to a subway station.

The free market was nearly deserted of vendors and patrons. It was great. I really liked it, because it was so different from the crowded conditions we had seen in Tokyo and elsewhere. As we wandered down the surreal tunnels, we passed by a professional wrestling match, an artist who had amazing Daliesque paintings, a bluegrass band playing in front of themselves on an emense TV screen to a nearly empty audience.

Then we ran into this fellow:

(The Lego master builder is the guy in the silly hat on the left. I didn’t get his name. I’m the guy in the silly hat on the right.)

This is a working pachinko machine, made entirely out of Lego. The balls were not Lego that I recognized (small white plastic). I’d guess this fine fellow is stocking up on soccer sets as we speak.

The machine took a month to build, and contains around 3,000 parts. (I think the part estimate is low.) The entire time I watched, the balls never hung once. I wish I had had a video camera; it was amazing to watch in action.

You can spot a battery car from the ‘60s in the lower right. I also saw Samsonite gears and a whole bunch of macaronis.

The master builder is not on the Internet, and didn’t know very many adult collectors. He had some snapshots of other creations, including monorail trains and buildings, but the pachinko machine was the best.

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