Day 5: Luck Averages Out

If you can believe it, I basically spent the whole day playing crane games. Okay, not literally the whole day but definitely a lot of the time.

One thing I hadn't mentioned in the past few days was that bascially every time I walk by an arcade, I pop in and drop a few hundred yen (a few dollars) on crane games. I think in the past week I'd basically spent like 20 or 30 dollars and hadn't won anything, and I'm too shy to ask the people there for more help.

I actually saw one of the items I'd been trying to win at a store early so I bought it for ¥1650, probably roughly half of what I'd put into crane games trying to win it. It's basically just a hand-puppet of Hololive member Shirakami Fubuki, a VTuber that I've wathced in the past. (Side note, her performance in the GTA Role Play on the Hololive server recently was top notch).

For some reason, even though I had literally just purchased it with no skill required, I saw a claw machine not too long afterward with another puppet in the same line. Unfortunately for me, I didn't learn from my past mistakes. Before I go into that though, here's a look at the prizes I did manage to win

Baiscally the majority of claw machines/prize games have toys from the most popular anime, so things like One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Shounen Jump titles are heavily represented. Hololive is also a force to be reckoned with. Outside of those, there are a lot of machines with Sanrio characters. Frieren and Bocchi the Rock also appeared to have a strong presence.

I'm not too into Shounen Jump so I ended up focusing on machines with Hololive, Bocchi, or Frieren merch. Unfortunately, Frieren isn't represented here.

About my winnings:

• Top left, this darn thing had to have cost me like ¥2500, I should have just bought it in a secondhand store. Although, I don't even watch this one very often, so I'm not sure why I was compelled to win it haha
• Top right, Good luck Bocchi! It cost me only ¥100, got it on the first try! Don't know what I did differently but I'm glad I did. I saw this figure for sale in a couple shops for ¥2350, so it was a deal for me
• Bottom left, Bad luck Bocchi! I didn't keep track but this was like at least ¥1200. The machine was pretty strong so I was always sure it would get it in the next one
• Bottom right. Good luck Minato Aqua! Only ¥100! But then I spent a lot more trying to get another one that I ultimately did not

If only I had known to only go for the Bocchi and Aqua, I could have saved myself a lot of money...

Also a quick tip, the machines at the Don Quixote in Akihabara seem cheaper and like they grab more firmly than some of the other places in Akihabara.

Since I was basically gambling my money away already, I tried a couple gacha machines that were pretty expensive at ¥1000 each. The top prize for one of them was a like $900 dollar figure, so I was easily tricked into trying it out.

I'm not saying it's a scam, but I definitely don't think either prize I got was worth the entry haha

It also was a little rainy today, which I think is nice especailly at night because it makes everything more sparkly.