Suleyman Films

Happy Friday, Readers!

Last week, I wrote a little about Magic: The Gathering, a game near and dear to my heart. This week, I’ll spend some time reliving yesterday when I threw some money away at a newly-opened crane game spot in Rockville.

One of our go-to spots for lunch is a cafeteria-of-sorts, Pike Kitchen, located off Rockville Pike in, well, Rockville. It’s got a little bit of everything: bubble tea, ramen, Thai food, sushi, baked goods, ice cream and other desserts, and, the big highlight, $10 lunches during the week. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to interview a friend for an upcoming article for the magazine Games World of Puzzles, and I coaxed him with some free lunch.

(Stay tuned for the column! More on that when I get the all-clear for said column. Don’t want to jinx it.)

After we had our ramen and conducted the interview as best I could – it was the second interview I’d ever done, and it’s definitely a skill that seems far easier when you listen to the professionals on the radio – my wife texted me, reminding me of a store five minutes away: Ebisu Japanese Life Store.

The mouthful-of-a-name store is kind of like Pike Kitchen: a whole lot of stuff all in one place. Part convenience store, part anime store, part collectible store, Ebisu has a little bit of everything and then some. Snacks from Japan? Check. Japanese-brand shampoo and conditioner? Check. Pokemon keychains and anime figurines? Check.

But the latest addition (according to the ads I receive on Instagram, anyway) is the crane game room opened up a few feet from the checkout counter.

Crane games are a bit of a mixed-bag experience for everyone: we all know they’re a money sink, but we also know the next try is absolutely the one that nabs the prize (in this case, cutesie plushes). Staples in arcades all over, crane games function about the same everywhere: you put money in, move a wobbly crane over your desired item that’s worth far less than what you’ve spent, and then watch as there is no damn way that didn’t grab it okay one more try.

That’s how yesterday went.

My friend and I stopped by after the interview, and I grabbed a few dollars’ worth of tokens to try my hand at Ebisu’s new attraction. After a brief walk around the small, brightly lit space, I found my target: a smiling cheeseburger plush. Just what I needed, of course.

On the first try, I had the burger in the metallic claw’s grasp. It lifted a few inches. The grip remained true. The crane just had to move two inches without somehow dropping—

And the burger plummeted back to its pile.

Okay, second try. The mocking burger knew I was a fool and fell deeper into the mass of its burger-plush clones. This would be harder. Maybe even impossible. But I tried anyway and… The crane failed me, or vice-versa.

Either way, I decided to drown my sorrows in some grape juice and Turtle Chips (they’re weird but addicting corn chips that don’t taste like anything natural on this planet). My friend and I left the two other people in the room to make their own poor financial decisions, and we called it a day.

When checking out, I told my friend he was about to judge my next decision: I bought enough tokens for two more attempts.

I’ll leave the cost of the attempts a mystery. Keeping you all on your toes.

So, we returned to the room, and my worst nightmare came true: the two other people had apparently been trying to get my cheeseburger.

And they were better at the crane game than I was.

One girl celebrated while the other pulled the plush from the machine, and they each couldn’t believe someone had actually won a crane game in so few attempts.

I couldn’t believe it either. My cheeseburger plush was going home with someone else.

But that didn’t keep me from trying to get another (inferior) plush that looked like the one being carried away. Attempt one saw no success. Attempt two and the crane got caught on the plastic walls of the pit where cheeseburgers find their new homes.

The two people sharing the small space with us saw my failures and offered the cheeseburger (my cheeseburger), and I laughed and said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” What kind of monster would I be if I took someone else’s hard-earned prize?

But failures aside, the ten minutes at Ebisu was fun, if fiscally irresponsible.

Will I go back? Maybe. Probably. Yes.

Will my cheeseburger be happy in its new home? Definitely.