Read The Pachinko Parlour, which had been lingering for a couple of days despite being short enough to read in an hour. Quite good, though I preferred the other book recently recommended to me, about the laundries. This one had a pair of very good grandparents, Korean-Japanese, and some of the least appetising food I’ve ever read about. Coincidentally, I also listened to a BBC radio series about North Korea, which had, in one episode, something about the pachinko parlours run by Korean-Japanese and another somewhat unappealing bit of food, a green tea pancake as a pachinko reward. Apparently, gambling is illegal in Japan but at pachinko parlours you can win small items which can then be exchanged, quietly, for cash. This was described in almost identical terms in the book and the podcast, and made me wonder how long the green tea pancake had been circulating between the pachinko parlour and the cashing-in operation before it was eaten by the podcast host.
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