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SHIBAMATA |
Report by John In November 2011, my wife and I visited Tokyo in Japan for a long weekend. On day one we visited the countryside of Tokyo - Kawaguchiko (河口湖). It is indeed a good place with beautiful views and fresh air.
On the second day, we visited Shibamata (柴又) in the morning. Shibamata is an ancient area which is famous as the setting for the popular Japanese movie series Tora San (男はつらいよ).
Our first visiting point was the Shibamata High Collar Alley (柴又ハイカラ横丁) which is only two minutes away from Shibamata train station.
There was a total of four vintage EM pinballs; Mustang (Gottlieb, 1977), Wizard! (Bally, 1974) , Jack in the Box (Gottlieb, 1973) and Twin Win (Bally, 1971). It cost 100 Yen per 3-ball game. The working conditions of all machines were merely acceptable, and it was not easy to get replay. Anyway, it is not an amusement centre and so we should not have too high expectations of it.
Surprisingly, I found some pretty Japanese girls who also liked playing the pinballs. If I had known Japanese at that time, I would have approached them and taught them how to play pinball (of course, only when my wife was not there). (^o*)
Other than the pinballs, there was also a small toy museum on the first floor of Shibamata High Collar Alley. However, please remember that this museum is only open on Saturday, Sunday and Japanese public holidays.
After staying there for one-and-a-half hours, we continued our journey to the main street of Shibamata, called 帝釋天參道. It was a Sunday and therefore the whole Shibamata area was quite crowded in the afternoon.
Here is some additional information about Shibamata High Collar Alley (柴又ハイカラ横丁):
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