Free The Toyotomi Blades by Dale Furutani

I didn’t blame them for their interest. I pointed out the direction and held up three fingers to indicate three blocks. Then I pointed to the map and counted off “Ichi, ni, san” or “one, two, three” in Japanese, as I indicated the blocks to the train station.
    The woman giggled and nodded her comprehension at my instructions. Then she bowed and thanked me profusely. I caught several arigatos, which is thank you in Japanese. She bustled off in the direction I had pointed to and I continued my walk to the hotel.
    I strolled along for a couple of more blocks until I saw a Pachinko parlor. In Pachinko, little metal balls are shot into the air and come cascading down into various wheels, mechanical flowers, and cups. When a ball goes into one of the cups a bell rings, lights flash, and additional balls pour out of the machine. It’s sort of a cross between pinball and a slot machine. You can use the balls you’ve won to play some more or you can trade them in for gifts of various sorts. I’ve read you can even trade in your winnings for money, although this is supposed to be illegal because this would make Pachinko a gambling game instead of a game of amusement.
    On a whim, I ducked into the Pachinko parlor to see this phenomenon close up. Rows of machines were tightly crowded in aisles, with pink plastic stools in front of them. Players were sitting on the stools in front of their machines, intently watching the trajectory of the balls being shot up into the machine. Pachinko used to be manually operated, but these machines were all automated. By turning a big wheel, the force used to shoot the balls to the top of the machine could be varied, and this is where the skill, such as it was, came in. The noise of all the machines was terrific, but the players seemed totally oblivious as they watched the machines in front of them. One guy had an enormous number of metal balls coming out of his machine. I watched him for several minutes because he had the knack for positioning the balls in just the right place so that when they cascaded down the machine, they had the highest likelihood of hitting something that would pay off.
    A player behind me started cursing and I turned around in time to see the last of his metal balls disappear into the bottom of the machine without hitting anything that would return more balls. I guess there is some skill to playing this. I looked up from the defeated player and saw the backs of two men at the end of the aisle of machines. I was sure they were the same two men who were studying the dress shop window when I had my encounter with the old lady. My level of concern shot up like the cascade of metal balls in the Pachinko machine.
    I turned and made my way down the aisle and out of the shop. I strolled along, keeping to well-populated streets with plenty of people. I turned a corner and took a quick peek down the street I had just turned off from. The two men were coming down the street after me.
    Tokyo is known as one of the safest big cities in the world, with very little street crime. Still, little street crime is very different than no street crime and I was being followed by two unsavory-looking characters. Maybe it was coincidence and maybe it wasn’t. I didn’t like the possibilities if it wasn’t.
    In Tokyo neighborhoods they have mini-police stations where the officers assigned to a neighborhood stay. Unfortunately, these stations weren’t marked on my map and I had no idea how I’d go about finding one. I thought about going into an open business, but I wasn’t sure I could communicate with the shopkeeper. Besides, the two guys had already followed me into the Pachinko parlor and I wasn’t sure ducking into a shop would shake them. So, I just kept walking, doing my best to not look over my shoulder and tip them off that I had spotted them.
    Acting normal in abnormal circumstances is hard. I wanted to break into a run, but I wasn’t sure that was the best tactic. Ahead I saw