Tokens and Fortunes

Shiny gold coins, which meant nothing to the real world, drove my childhood obsession. Not just having them, but the payout for tickets for the random crap that filled my childhood bedroom was especially enticing. Saving coins so I had more than my pals when we went back together, my ticket winnings was always more than my friends for this reason.

This was my 90's, arcades, play places, and the cherry on top of family restaurants Dave and Busters. This was the ultimate family night out, moms and dads getting a date night while machines that blared and blinked babysat their children for half the cost. Why pay a sitter $40 for a couple hours when they could pay $10 for 100 coins and hours of enjoyment out while the kids were satisfied and preoccupied too?

It was always fun bringing friends for dinner out, not having to always play with your siblings, showing off the ticket stash I had to trade-in for that cordless phone in my room. I reminisce about the simpler times often. Kids today could care less about paper tickets, crappy neon bouncy balls, Slinky’s, posters, figurines and big ticket items like cordless phones or a light strobe for your room. They have phones, tablets, even board games are going out of style. Maybe this is just Western culture now. I wonder what kids in Asia and Africa would think of our western kids snub to such entertainment now, what do they do?

This reminds me of the year my parents housed an international student. I was just a pre-teen. She was from southeastern Japan, a small area called Kochi. Her name was Satosha, which was unfortunately westernized into Sasha. At the time, she didn't seem to mind people calling her that, she was still trying to learn English and adapt to western America. She clung to my sister being the only young female in the house, but she was several years younger than her, closer in age to me. She had interests none of us could understand, but gaming seemed to be familiar to her, a skill she didn’t shy away from showing. Our home consoles were often a bonding place for us and her. The only time she seemed to understand and enjoy spending time with the rest of my family. American board games didn’t seem to bring the same joy, having rules hard to understand, the coloured currency of Monopoly money frustrating to learn and play with, jail time causing tears most often.

It was about a month into her living with us and going to our school that we finally went out for a family dinner. Dave and Busters of course. We all crammed into the back of the station wagon and drove the half hour into town for a night of fun and a break for mom and dad from their new parenting responsibilities. Satosha was my and my sister’s responsibility, it was made clear. As soon as we got there my sister b-lined for her cool group of middle school friends and I was left as proprietor of the coin money and Satosha’s whereabouts for the night.

As soon as we stepped through the door, the neon lights, loud noises and bright screens of games and wheels made her awestruck. She stopped and starred for at least five minutes, just taking in the sights unaware that my parents had already left us to find a booth and start their evening. It was time to rack up the tickets. I tapped her on the shoulder, and we made our way to the black and grey machines that exchanged bills for coins to start our fortune. I showed her the prize counter, the glass cases with prizes and ticket prices. She seemed to understand the idea while watching other kids line up with their tickets and walk away with more. We started with my favourite game, I scoured the aisles of games until I found a gold mine game with enough coins piled up that I knew it would pay out well after a few rounds of shooting coins into the slot. We each took turns, on Satosha’s the big push over the edge happened and a whopping 200 tickets spit out. I quickly started folding them into rows, so we didn’t have to worry about losing any or ripping them. I handed them to her, and her face lit up. All she could manage was “again!”

I pointed to another game, something with some more action. Not willing to let her walk away with another big haul, I led her to skee-ball, a personal favourite I was convinced helped with my bowling skills. The machines were bright blue and pink, with 5 rings to shoot balls into and the coveted top corner holes worth the most points. The catch, you only get 6 balls for all the coins you have to spend. I showed her with my first ball what we had to do, and she started on her own lane. I managed to get 3 balls into the top corners, that day was a personal best performance. She managed to land most of her balls into the top ring, and we almost tied, I narrowly beat her score. Again, the tickets came pouring out. Eventually we used up our 100 coins and went to cash in our tickets at the prize counter. I was hoping to have enough for a Star Wars figurine to complete my collection. She stood taking in all the option as her tickets were woven through the automatic counter by the prize girl. She had 2000 tickets, I wrote the number on a paper for her, and pointed to the row that cost exactly 2000. There was nothing she wanted, all western culture crap, looking back on it. Luckily numbers were something she understood, the universal language of math, the prize girl point to the 1000 row and gave her the peace sign, “two from here?” Again, Satosha declined. She had her eye on a bunch of small items, all girly or things for her pencil case, stickers for her notebooks, she walked away with a bag full items.

When we found my parents at the booth, she very proudly showed off all her winnings. My parents grimaced at the literal bag of Knick knacks that was about to grace their home. Satosha was glowing with glee, this was the highlight of her stay with us so far. We had pizza, found my sister and my parents peaceful date night ended. Satosha stayed with us for half a year, in that time we went back to Dave and Busters four more times. Every visit more competitive for her, new prizes added and ogled by her before game play. This was a currency she could get behind. It was one she would go on to remember for years, a highlight for the young that stopped existing as they got older, eventually places like that would show up at home, but the older you were the lamer you were, with new electronic dance games being the popular choice for teens instead. She kept in touch with my family via snail mail, telling us about her home, where she planned to go to University and the business her family had she was going to work in. Ironically, her love for games never faded and she ended up in the tech sector, returning once again to America to go to MIT for school. When she was done, she left for Japan once again, to return home to the family business, she was the only one left to take over with family getting old and retiring and no siblings.

The last we heard from Satosha was that she was making a move to close down the family business. She had started a new venture with the online world, it was growing so rapidly it would be a shame not to capitalize on it with her education. She hinted towards working with online games, reimagining a world of coins and prizes for adults instead of children, the “online gaming currency” as she referenced it. We didn’t hear much from her after that last correspondence, assuming she was starting a family much like my sister and I had started to. I’ve always wondered what became of her online gaming and currency, she seemed to drop off the grid after that, aside from the occasional extravagant gift she would send my parents at Christmas, eternally grateful for their parenting during her childhood days in the States.